Dreaming of Death Note
by The Real Chys Lattes
Summary: Shikako Nara gets reincarnated as Light Yagami's older sister. Knowing nothing of Death Note, can she save Light? -An Alternate Universe recursive fic of a Naruto fic, set in the Death Note universe with references to Naruto AU & Avatar AU as past lives.- ('Shikako Nara' is an OC from 'Dreaming of Sunshine' by 'Silver Queen', a Naruto fanfic. In Avatar AU she is 'Nukka'.)
1. Chapter 1: Meeting in Shadows

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 **Dreaming of Death Note**

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(Chapter 1's format and Story Disclaimer updated on 1/30/2016)

 _ **Overall Story Disclaimer:**_ Death Note, Naruto, Avatar, and Shikako Nara do not belong to me, I'm just borrowing them for a while. There are references to other stories and series throughout, and no, I don't own them either. This fic does contain Original Characters that do play important roles, and I do own them. If you don't like OCs then you'd probably better not read a recursive fanfic of a fanfic starring one. I use OCs in world building and for plot advancement. (The world is bigger than the canon cast, after all.) Shikako Nara is an OC who belongs to _Silver Queen_. She is the only OC in this story that I did not invent.

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 **Author's Note:** This fic is listed under _Silver Queen_ 's Heliocentrism list, alongside many other recursive fics for her DoS series. Check them out as they are much better. :D

First posted in the forums under Recursive Fanfiction thread for Dreaming of Sunshine Naruto fanfics. This is a fanfic of a fanfic in an alternate series, like a crossover of an OC in Naruto being reborn as Light Yagami's older sister in Death Note after spending some time in the Avatar universe. The premise for the ficlet was originally: _"I was thinking about Shikako and L bonding over cakes and it made me think they'd be playing a chess game at the same time. He'd be slowly making her see the truth of the matter with every turn they play, between overly sugared bites of cake. He could dole out logic and she would be responding with acceptance or denial, that Kira is actually her newest family member that she desperately wants to save, all whilst slowly breaking away at her false mental construct of the perfect little brother with cold hard logic. The same logic which her ninja-trained mind knows to rationalize with._ "

Thanks to PondRiverWilliams for the idea of crossing them over with Shikako as the older sibling. I originally envisioned her as being reincarnated as Sayu, but your comment changed my mind and got me actually writing her as an older sibling. (And actually writing it as a fic!)

That spawned this story:

 **Fair Warning** : You need knowledge of Death Note to be able to follow this story, as it's not from Light's perspective, but rather it follows Shikako's reincarnation. Also, it helps to know Naruto/Shippuden and something of Avatar The Last Air Bender, and of course, Dreaming of Sunshine by Silver Queen.

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 **Dreaming of Death Note:**

 **Chapter 1: Meeting in Shadows.**

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This wasn't her first time in a world of modern technology. It might not even be her last. Shikako Nara, as she now thought of herself even lifetimes after bearing that name, had been reincarnated once again.

She had lived in a more primitive world before, and the jump from one extreme to the other was quite disorienting at first; going from walking everywhere on foot to having motor vehicles, or simply washing your clothes in the river versus a washing machine in your home, the extreme differences always stood out the most. Having lived in a technologically advanced world in her life _Before_ her first reincarnation into the Naruto-verse, she quickly adapted to this one that was very much the same level of advancement. She fell into it easily, whereas in less modernized worlds and lives before, it was a conscious struggle against the elements- sometimes literally. At least in this world she didn't have to dodge fireballs on a regular basis, as she had once done as a member of the Water Tribe in the world of the Avatar.*

This world was kind to her so far, even if she was clueless as to the story it followed, and she was certain it followed one as every world she had been reborn into thus far was one from popular media in her world of _Before_. She did not dislike it, but was always looking for the danger it could hold. Modernization had perks she had often missed in other incarnations, so she was enjoying them while they lasted. Having the world of information readily available for her perusal was one of those things. You don't realize how much you missed something until you lose it, and it is gone from your reach for forever- unless it somehow comes back to you, then you can't take it for granted ever again. Having access to the internet, she used it every day to learn something new, knowing full well the value of knowledge at your fingertips. Her ability to learn was her greatest tool and weapon, for the future.

She'd taken a part time job while attending University, and had been working there ever since her younger brother Light had begun attending as well. She occasionally took the odd job here and there just to amuse herself when she got bored, but this was about money. She didn't think it was fair to be a financial drain on her parents, as her father was a hard working police chief, and her mother was staying at home to take care of her three children, and supporting two of them in a good University was a burden, no matter how they disagreed. They were proud, and wouldn't admit that.

Even in this lifetime, she couldn't distance herself from the family she was born into, and had plenty of time to decide she didn't really want to. She was close, attached to them, even if the strangeness of having a new family would never wear off, it was really more like with every incarnation of her soul in a new world her family just... grew. She wanted to help as much as she could, not out of obligation but of fondness. She truly cared for them, and wanted to protect them.

She was perfectly capable of contributing her own fair share with the money she earned from the pizza job, she was buying her own necessities and school supplies and texts. It wasn't a bad job, though it wouldn't have been her first choice either, until she saw the uniform on an employee stepping out to make a delivery and eyed his strangely familiar looking orange flared jacket with large wide black stripes that sent a wave of nostalgia through her unexpectedly. She decided then and there to go with it, ridiculous as it might look, as it reminded her of someone dear.

The neon red sign proclaiming they were _hiring_ was lit up like a beacon in the night, and so she tied her bike up outside and went for it. (In hindsight, seeing that a business had a _neon sign for new hires_ was not really a good advertisement for job security, but it's not like she intended to keep working there indefinitely.) If she'd have known it would end up being the very convenience she needed, in a tricky situation months later, she would have doubled over in laughter.

No, she'd chosen the pizza place on a whim. She could have gone to the coffee shop, or the bookstore, but might have been too easily distracted there, though she'd have had a bit of time to study at the library on and off. Besides, riding her bike to deliver pizzas (-in under 10 minutes out the door, anywhere in the local neighborhood, take that! HAH! Kunoichi's still got it-) was actually good exercise, and she wanted to keep her body in top shape, out of habit. It wasn't worse than D ranks at any rate. Lifetimes worth of conditioning tended to catch up to a person, even when they're reborn. She would know. And as with every life time, she did her mother's morning song and routine habitually. She kept it fresh in her memory, always.

Today was a decisive day, though no one else in the world knew it. (Well, she didn't know that for certain.) Today she was going to get answers to some very disturbing questions. She'd smelled her father's cologne as she came home days ago, and she knew he'd been in her room. He'd been gone all week, working on the international mass murderer case (also referred to as the _Kira_ case, since that was popular media's moniker for the murderer.) The rest of the family were starting to get worried about him.

Things in her bedroom had been moved, oddities out of place. She had every scrap of paper and every line of dust (left there intentionally as a tell) memorized. Someone had left fingerprints where they didn't belong, in the dust on the side of her desk, the headboard of her bed, the left doorknob of her double-wide closet which she never needed to turn as it pulled open once the other was moved, several books she hadn't touched in months. Someone had moved her blankets, her textbooks, her little piggy bank that reminded her of Tonton, (thankfully, her money was untouched) and her decorative figurines shaped like deer. Her clothes (both dirty and clean) had the pockets turned inside out. Everything she owned had been pawed through. A ninja knows when someone's invaded their territory, and the signs were so obvious anyone would notice eventually. The entire house had been examined. But by whom?

She entertained a few possibilities, like old acquaintances she'd met at school, then dismissed that as a ridiculous notion. That acquaintance would never have need to do such a thing, so it was a moot point.

Her father knew what was going on, one way or the other. He had been there. That unique scent was his, a cologne she had bought him for his birthday. It was imported and rare as she had splurged her allowance and savings to get him something truly nice. So why did she smell it in her room? The scent of cooking food from the kitchen didn't even make it through her door on a daily basis so it couldn't have wafted in while she was gone.

Today was the day she was going to find out what he was doing and why. She knew he was investigating Kira, the mass murderer. And then there were the cameras, which got her blood boiling, and made the hair on her arms rise in paranoia. This did not bode well. She'd stayed calm, acted normal. She had tricks up her sleeve. Nothing wrong here, nothing...wrong. It had been three days, and she finally had her chance.

Signing off from work for the night, she grabbed a small pizza she'd bought at discount (perks of the job) and headed out the door. Her dad had said he would be at the police station to pick up the clothes and supplies Light dropped off for him. Even though he'd been home, and she knew it, she didn't tell the rest of her family. They insisted he needed the items and Light volunteered to deliver them at a certain time for him, cutting her off before she had the chance to volunteer herself.

She would have mentioned her fears to her family, but... She didn't want to scare them with the knowledge that there were cameras all over their household and the head of the family was involved, somehow. She also had no real proof that this wasn't something sinister. For all she knew, until she had a statement otherwise, this might be a hostage situation in which Kira was holding her very life in his hands! She wanted proof, before she outed anything, and for that she needed to talk to her dad. He should be arriving at the station any minute now, so she balanced the pizza on the specially shaped basket she bought for her school books which doubled as the perfect size for strapping pizza boxes on, and raced down the busy Japanese street, easily avoiding colliding with passersby.

Why the pizza? She could say she was worried he hadn't been eating enough. It was her valid excuse to see him, just in case she was being observed by a crazy mass murderer, after all. And it fell in line with Light dropping off clothes for him, so that excused her timing.

...It didn't hurt to be cautious.

She arrived at the station just in time to see Light leaving. He was walking down the sidewalk, talking with some woman. She watched as her brother let the woman borrow his cell phone. Paying him little mind, as her real target was inside the building or coming out soon, she pulled out her own cell phone (which she kept secret so no one would pester her with unwanted phone calls, though at the moment the cell she usually used, the one that Light bought for her as a gift, was not in her possession,) to try to call her father and see if he would answer. The phone rang, repeatedly, then dropped to voice mail. Her father had his phone off a lot lately.

Something good caught her eye, just in time. Matsuda, a man she recognized as working with her father before, came hurrying out of the station carrying a familiar bag, one which she knew she'd packed that morning for Light to take with him. "Bingo." She hopped back on her bike and quietly, slowly followed him down the street, keeping her distance. He walked for a long time, until finally he reached a hotel and darted inside. Cursing her slowness, she frantically tied her bike to the nearest immovable object (A tall sidewalk ash dispenser) and, grabbing the pizza, rushed to get into the building before she would lose sight of him at the elevator. She pulled her delivery uniform hat further down snugly to hide, allowing her hair to fall free on either side of her face. If there were cameras watching, she might not be recognized that easily as luckily, her dark hair was down and messy from the bike ride. At a clipped pace, she made it to the elevator to see the number it stopped on. When the elevator next to it popped open she almost knocked down an old woman in her rush to get in.

Tapping the floor number in to the panel, she waited for it to arrive at the appropriate floor, hoping she hadn't completely lost sight of Matsuda. Well, it wasn't the end of the world. She was actually equipped for this, and the other passengers that clambered in behind her had floors that would take them higher than hers, thus hers would be the first stop.

Climbing out of the elevator she took stock of her surroundings to discover the floor was completely empty.

Time to knock on doors. "Pizza delivery!" The door opened to reveal a busy blonde foreigner hanging out of a slim dress with badly smeared lipstick, tangled hair, and a disheveled appearance.

"I didn't order any pizza." she says in badly accented Japanese. She smirks to the side at someone or something unseen before a hand appears from behind her to shove the door closed. That probably explains the smear.

The next three doors down that hallway were empty, and the other occupants were the wrong people. She was familiar with everyone that worked at the police station, as she and Light had helped them with some insurance fraud cases in the past. She would know their faces upon opening the door- but if they were worried about Kira, they wouldn't open it to reveal their faces, would they? So far every door that was occupied was opened wide, and was completely wrong.

By the time she reached the second to last door down this hall, she was positive the universe hated her. Knocking politely and announcing her delivery, she almost startled when a tall, beefy musclebound man in oddly unsettling tiger striped spandex shorts ripped open the door, took one look at the pizza and proclaimed it, "The devil's food, how dare you tempt me!" then turned on himself and began to beg her to give it to him, with tear-filled puppy dog eyes and everything. "Even just a slice!" He could have been Maito Gai reincarnated. Considering her current circumstances she wouldn't put anything past the universe on this one.

Stammering as she suddenly had the mental image of Maito Gai wearing this eyesore, and fervently wishing that she hadn't just thought that, she calmed herself with a slow blink as she rattled off a ridiculously high price for the pizza. If he was sane he'd never pay it, if he was crazy (and she thought he might be a few bananas short of a 'bunch' here) she'd be able to afford next semester's text books. With a high-pitched gasp of outrage, the door slammed in her face.

 _'Well_.'

 _'Moving on.'_

There was only one door left, and by the noise she'd been making they knew she was coming. Still, she steeled her resolve, walked up to the door, and politely repeated her knock and announcement.

Matsuda's normally cheerful voice came through the door, though it only opened a crack, the chain still in place. "Sorry? We didn't order any pizza, thank you." He sounded distressed.

"It's for Yagami." she said quietly into the crack so that no one else down the hall would hear them.

The door closed, only to be opened a full minute later. Matsuda stood behind the door, his voice suddenly stern and demanding; a sound she'd never heard from him previously, "Come in, and set it on the table."

She entered, walked to the nearest table, a coffee table, which had been lain out with several mugs of coffee and tea, containers of cream and sugar, and a pile of cellphones, one of which she recognized as her father's. He was definitely here. With a smile, she set the pizza down amid the mess, then turned and realized there was a gun in her face.

Looking up into Matsuda's frightened gaze, the two of them backed away from each other. Matsuda lowered the gun when he realized he was holding a weapon in his boss's daughter's face. "You! I... I mean... I... how did you get here?"

"I followed you, Matsuda. Sorry, was it a bad surprise? I wanted to bring some food for dad since Light brought his clothes and stuff. But, I didn't make it in time! I just got off work at the pizza place, saw you leaving the office with dad's bag, so I... figured you... were taking it to...?" she trailed off, her eyes falling to the dark shadows at his feet out of habit. She shyly scratched the back of her head, playing on the 'oh shucks, it's just harmless little me' image, realizing this probably did not look good. "Is, is he here?" she tentatively asked. She didn't like playing meek but sometimes it got her what she wanted.

A voice called out from the other room, "Matsuda, come to the bedroom. It's fine." She didn't recognize this voice, had never met this person before.

Matsuda put his gun away and headed into the other room. Not knowing what was expected of her, she stayed and waited, thinking maybe her father would come out to talk to her. Right on the money, he appeared seconds later. He came out and gave her a hug. "What are you doing here?"

"Uh, I just explained..." she trailed off again.

Her father glared down at her, not in anger but in fear, "Yes, but this is the middle of an investigation. Someone could have followed you! You can't just-"

She cut him off, her arm emphasizing her words in a sweeping gesture, "There are cameras in our house! Someone's been in there, dad! I needed to talk to you! You never answer your phone anymore."

"You... how long have you known?" The sound of his voice implied he knew there were cameras there. So that was one answer, but even more questions reared their ugly heads in its wake. Like ' _Why_?'

"I noticed them this morning," she wasn't sure why she felt bad that she lied, but there were some things she wanted to keep to herself; her skills at observation being one of them.

"I've decided," the voice came from the bedroom again. "Send her in here, please, Yagami."

With a choked sigh, her father motioned for her to go in the room. He settled himself down on the couch next to Matsuda, whom was munching on a slice of the pizza already. With a sheepish grin, he offered Yagami one. (When had he left the bedroom? She was so engrossed with calling her father out that she didn't notice he'd reentered the room. Sloppy of her. Guess she needed to hone her observation skills.)

Curiosity winning out, she walked in, wondering who it could be. She knew from watching the news and from her father's own admission last week that the entire police force was working with the famed detective, the man of mystery, 'L'. Could this be him?

Standing in the darkest shadows at the back of the room, right in a position where in another world he would be unknowingly in the most danger from her, the man with the strange voice waited for her to approach. She eyed him slouching in the dark, gazing into his black rimmed eyes intently, and came to a conclusion. He reminded her a lot of Gaara, so he probably didn't get much sleep, with eyes like that. Probably a deep thinker, a problem solver, or someone just addicted to work?

She could wing it, why not? The worst that could happen would be having to admit she was wrong about his identity.

Not wanting to monologue an explanation on her conclusion, (she'd learned her lesson on monologues, thank you very much!) she decided to get to the point, "Hello, L."

Hearing that name from her lips, he stood rigid, and his mouth parted in a surprised "Oh!" which morphed into a strangely delighted grin which might have been welcome on one of Kankuro's many puppets. He then instantly deflated to a slouch once more, wandered almost aimlessly toward her, and found his way to a lone wing-backed chair in the middle of the room, upon which he seated himself in a most uncomfortable looking position.

"I have no illusions that you don't know my name. You've been watching us for a while, haven't you? I found cameras, you know." she continued, her voice carrying a sharp edge to it.

"Ah, yes, I observed the moment when you found them." Did he realize she had lied about when she noticed them? She couldn't tell. He sat awkwardly with his feet pulled up on the chair, toes bare and wiggling, hands resting on top of his knees, chin positioned just above them. That strange grin was back. He was close to her now, and half enveloped in the cool shadows of the dark room.

"I bet you did," she muttered. Huffing in indignation, she asked, "I expect you got an eye-full? The bathroom, really?"

"It was the most logical thing to do, otherwise you could get away with anything unseen under the guise of privacy. Crime does not remain private in the eyes of the law and justice." He said with a wide-eyed smile that looked a bit out of place on his pale face. "Plus, I got permission from your father."

Raising one brow, she crossed her arms over her orange and black jacket. She did have to admit his point was valid, if only it applied. "Get away with? I wonder what you're implying as I am not a criminal. Well, I see you're the morally superior type."

"Indeed." She honestly couldn't tell if he was joking or serious.

"So you really were watching, and you do know who I am. So, it wasn't... So it wasn't Kira watching us, then?"

"You believed it was Kira that planted the cameras?" L asked, suddenly sitting up in curiosity, eyes wide. "Ah, yes, Yagami told his family whom he was investigating," he stated with a nod.

She raised her chin and nodded back in his direction, letting out a breath of air she didn't seem to realize she'd been holding. She decided to go for broke, and get some answers while doing so, "Well... then you know why I'm here. I want to help."

He gazed at her intently for the span of a minute, as if weighing the value of her words, and assessing his next move. If he turned her away now, there was really nothing she could do. He actually looked like he expected this and for a moment her certainty faltered though she stared back, strong and focused, and not once did she fidget, "Of course, Michiko Yagami. I'm certain I could find a way for you to assist us. Or... for safety's sake... should I give you an alias? How about-"

"Shikako." She hastily whispered, eyes suddenly watering. "You can call me Shikako Nara." If he noticed the curiosity of how her voice had broken a bit at the quiet proclamation, he kept it to himself. He did, however, raise his brows at her quickly chosen name.

"Thought this through, did you? I'd like to assess your abilities." With one finger to his mouth, he motioned to a set of chairs around a table set up in the corner. She had long ago noticed the standing lamp near that table was the primary source of light in the room, aside from what filtered in from outside, casting the harshest shadows immediately below it. "Please, let's play a game of chess."

Now this, this she was used to.

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 **Author's Note:** * The _Avatar: The Last Air Bender_ references take place in ficlets and comments on the recursive fanfiction forums only and are not, at the current moment, a reference to an actual DoS recursive fic. The rest is referencing DoS events for Naruto-verse.

Also, Thank You for all the helpful reviews! I've been trying to improve my writing so if you see something that needs improvement, even if it's a minor thing, let me know! Thank you.


	2. Chapter 2: Starting Again

Dreaming of Death Note: 2 - Starting Again

Shikako had begun this life like any other: born again, and raised again. She had been down this road a time or two, being reincarnated into a technologically advanced world. When she first realized that her tiny little baby eyes were seeing glowing neon lights and cars driving by she was at first saddened by the knowledge that this was not a world in which she would see her old loved ones again, but still, it was a world of infinite potential. And this time they had modern conveniences like washing machines. Gone are the days when she'd be expected to wash everyone's socks by hand, in the river, just because she was the daughter.

Oddly enough, shortly after taking her first breath in this world she felt a familiar presence at the back of her mind; that slow, residual build up of power that flowed through her happiest life. She could still feel this odd energy, even if she knew she couldn't use it. There was a type of chakra in this world. It was different from what she was accustomed to, and she wasn't even sure if she should be able to sense it. No one else in this world seemed to know or understand what she meant whenever she asked about it when she was younger. Getting strange looks, she said it was something she read in a story. She decided it was a mystery for another day. She never asked those same people such questions again. She left that questing for later.

Given the new name Michiko Yagami, she had a baby brother named Light two years later, and after that an even younger sister named Sayu. She was used to juggling the duties of older sibling by now, having been with Sokka and Katara before, but life was much easier this time around. Both parents were alive and well, there was nothing wrong with the world and no war on the horizon, and all seemed at peace.

Her mother was Sachiko Yagami, a kind woman who practiced flower arranging, but if Shikako had anything to say about it, she wasn't very good at it. The messages she was sending were all wrong, garbled and incoherent. Ino would have taken one look at her arrangements and cried tears of condensed rage. The meaning of the flowers was lost to her, as a kunoichi, or they weren't arranged in any way that conveys actual messages in this world. Then again, she had asked her mother what they meant when she was a bit older, and the only response she got was, "They make you happy, dear."

Her father Soichiro Yagami was a strong, intelligent, and well respected police chief. They were doing quite well, all things considered. And in this setting it was perfectly acceptable to allow herself to thrive.

She was quickly recognized as a prodigy as a baby, learning to crawl, walk, communicate, interact with the world at a level that her parents, relatives, and neighbors thought was alarming at first. She was just so desperate to be herself, to be able to move on her own, do her own thing, make her own choices, and for once, just reach the counter by herself without needing a step stool or needing her father to pick her up! Well, those things came with time.

She wasn't eager enough to accidentally reveal that as a baby she could understand every word spoken around her. She eased her family in to the thought that their child was simply learning at a very fast pace. With her need to achieve, Light took after her easily and learned from her every step of the way. She doted on him as any loving sister would, and helped him to catch up every time he fell behind. The two of them were often remarked upon by strangers for their precocious abilities, and never once were they seen away from one another, almost like twins. Sayu, on the other hand, was more independent from the get go, and tended to keep to herself. She would often play with friends her own age, and didn't often mimic Light and Michiko unless they were trying to teach her something new. Sayu didn't give off prodigious vibes, but she was intelligent and fast just the same. Overall their parents were very proud and vocal about all of their children's developments.

When they attended school, Michiko was often seen borrowing the older kid's classroom's shogi boards, finding her way down the hallway to Light's classroom, and teaching the younger kids, especially her brother, how to play. Often times during their lunch they would play while eating, and during recess as well. She had a small class of children that flocked to her to learn the game and play when they had time. The teachers even had to provide them space to play in, and more boards. The children in the class became quite good at the game under her tutelage, and the teachers applauded her incentive to learn and teach. During a parent-teacher meeting, the teachers remarked on how Michiko was such a skilled shogi player, and asked her parents just whom did they get to teach her? One of the children in the class even wanted to go on to play professional shogi and was applying to a special school! He was accepted within a week.

Soichiro and Sachiko looked at each other, dumbfounded. No one had any answers that day, and that was the first time Michiko became mysteriously unresponsive and utterly silent. She did this a few times throughout her younger years, and even took several sick days in silent contemplation once when she was nine. Her father actually had to carry the seven year old home the first time, as she wouldn't even get up from the time-out corner where she'd retreated to sit alone. The little girl seemed to be lost in her own head, and even Light's tentative prodding couldn't get her to wake from it. (Though he did so repeatedly, with his carrot sticks, as she curled up on a large floor pillow in their room.) This lasted until the next morning when she woke from where her mother had tucked her into bed and came down stairs. She drank some juice, thanked her mother for the bento and headed to school with Light as if nothing had happened. That was the day Michiko insisted she could walk Light to school alone, and didn't need her mother to hold her hand. Light was excited by the prospect of ' _going somewhere alone_ ' and wanted to experience this independence, punctuating his enthusiasm with jumps of joy and cheering that could be heard all the way down the street. (Sachiko had insisted on following along behind them as they walked ahead, but Michiko pretended to ignore that with an adorable scowl on her face. Little Light mimicked her scowl, once the novelty wore off and he realized his mom was still there. Sachiko had wished she'd had a camera to record the moment, but with her hands full carrying a squirming Sayu, she couldn't have taken a picture anyway.)

Light became quite skilled at several things, usually involving quick deductions and calculations. He was in advanced classes, though his sister had also been promoted several years for her ability to test into the higher learning classes easily. Their parents hired a special tutor for them on the weekend during elementary school. Even though they academically thrived with the older kids, they still had a recess with the younger ones, and he dominated the playground at things like hide and seek. After a while Michiko was queen of the play ground in that regard, but this only started happening after he heard her saying something strange, "I can feel them! It's not gone!" She didn't know he could hear her.

He never did win at hide and seek again after that. He'd been so good at it before. Really, it was just logic- there were only so many places that the kids could hide, so it was quite simple. But sometimes his sister would hide at home, too, when they weren't playing. During those times she'd be frantically writing something in her locked diary that he was never allowed to read. He'd never even seen where she got it from, she just started carrying it around with her one day. It was the only possession of hers she wouldn't allow him to touch. It always looked like code, if he managed a glance at it. He never once got a chance to decipher it as he never once found her little diary.

One day Light came upon his nine year old sister while she was sitting, staring intently with her face pointed to the wall, her open diary in her left hand and her right hand planted on the wall of their bedroom. She almost looked as if she were trying to pull her hand from the wall, but it wouldn't give. When he made a noise, stepping on a squeaky toy, she jumped up, hand still firmly stuck to the wall, which put her at an odd angle, bent over and clinging with her palm flat to the wood, fingers pointed toward the ceiling at a painful angle. Looking at her hand in amazement, she suddenly ripped it away from the wall. She tossed her diary onto her bed hastily. She uncertainly looked at him, frantic and wide eyes darting back at the wall again, and then abruptly started cheering and laughing loudly, spinning and dancing in place. Light had never seen a dance like that before; it looked foreign, like something you'd see on the discovery channel. She didn't stop her happy celebration until their mom entered the room to ask if everything was all right. She went silent again, after that. Light never discovered what it was she was so very happy about. But, from that day on, he started seeing strange things around his sister.

The shadows. They moved.

As he got older, he told himself those supernatural things don't exist, and it was all in his head. No sane person would believe that the shadows would move without a moving light source. That Michiko could make the shadow from a tree she was sitting under rise up like grass growing out of the ground was absurd. He could have sworn that was what he had seen, but eyes do play tricks on you. By the time he turned seventeen, he'd forgotten all about it, being nothing more than the childish whims of a developing young mind.

.

...

(Edited on 11/12/2015 for continuity and minor errors.)


	3. Chapter 3: Observations

Dreaming of Death Note: 3 - Observations

(Several days before Shikako met L... or before about anime ep 6.)

"I'm sorry, Sayu, I have to go to class, then I have to go to work! I can't go with you today." Michiko said while she gathered her clean clothes out of the laundry room. Her work hat and jacket were hanging up over the dryer already. The rest of her uniform needed to be put away until it was time to use it later that evening. Sayu followed her through the laundry room, making herself useful by grabbing empty laundry hampers and carrying them upstairs to the bedrooms while she pestered her sister to help her out with her latest obsession.

"But everyone's going to be there at the opening! It's my friend's birthday too, that's why they chose to go there, so the whole birthday party gets an entrance discount, on top of the discount for groups on opening day!" Michiko felt bad about having to turn her down, but if she missed work she'd probably get fired and she wasn't ready to give up the part time job just yet. Her sister's friend was having a birthday at a new karaoke club that had just opened up. Michiko knew nothing about it before Sayu took the incentive to enlighten her, repeatedly, as Michiko made her way through the house doing her daily chores. Now she knew all about how they had video games and a large dance floor, which was kind of rare for that area since it was actually open to teens and during the day. And a juice bar, and wouldn't it be fun if they all could go, but it's just her and her friend Kimiko, and her friend's other friend Midori since their third friend decided not to attend.

"So go!" Michiko loudly implored, shutting the lid on the washing machine. She had just finished putting her clean clothes into the dryer on delicate, but with her sister talking into her ear she almost forgot to turn the dial and would have started them on the hot cycle. She hung her sport's bra up to dry over the dryer, pressed the button to start it, and turned to face her, her brown eyes slanted in irritation.

But no, there was a problem. (Isn't there always?) "See, to be in a group you have to have four people. The horror! We don't have enough people to get the party discount and get to use the birthday karaoke room!" with a dramatic sigh, coupled with an eye roll that can only be properly performed by a dying fourteen year old, Sayu fell to her knees in the hallway outside the laundry room, the image of teenage despair. Michiko deposited another basket of dirty clothes next to the dryer to await an empty washer. She wouldn't be home to wash them, but her mother was good at catching things like that. Sachiko was at her flower arranging class, and wouldn't be back until much later that day.

"I'll go with you. You need another person in order to qualify, right? That way you'll have four people for your party?" Light chimed in as he made his way down the staircase in the adjoining hall. Sayu jumped up and squealed.

"Yes, yes, yes! Big bro is the best!" Sayu ran over and gave him a hug, or rather, tackled him in a glomp as far as her little arms would wrap around his waist. "But you'll have to sing! It's karaoke! And dance. And buy us juice and candy. And bring spending money." She said in her most stern voice, backing up to point at his nose for emphasis. He gave her finger a cross-eyed look.

"Heh, fine. I have about fourty-eight thousand Yen* saved up, actually, so we can spend some." This was met by incredulous gasps from Sayu.

"You have _how_ much? How'd you get _that much?_ Did dad give you extra spending money? Not fair, he picks favorites!"

"Sayu, some people actually save their money rather than spending it on every little whim. A birthday, huh? What kind of gifts would she like? It's today, isn't it? It's rude to show up at someone's birthday and not bring them a gift," advised Michiko.

Light looked thoughtful for a moment, "I'll pick her up something before we go."

Michiko smiled as her brother and sister headed off into the kitchen to make some snacks while they discussed (or from what it sounded like, haggled over the cost of,) her friend's birthday outing.

("I'm not spending _ALL_ of it, Sayu!")

(" _Pleeeeeaaassseee_!?")

She gathered the last of her school things to head out the door, and called out a quick goodbye, which they echoed back in mid argument. She shook off a lingering cold feeling as she stepped out the door.

Her Legal Terminology class was starting on the Criminal Law chapter. It wasn't a long one and Michiko had already read it. The class topics were interesting, and reminiscent of some of the work she'd done before. Today's class was mostly composed of lectures and memorizing facts on the chalkboard. She took careful notes, but pretty much had the material memorized already. She felt certain the test would be a breeze.

"Don't forget to submit the completed Fill-in-the-blank question sheet online, including your short answer essays, by Sunday at midnight- or else you fail. Those need to be uploaded as two separate files, people, under the proper header on the class website. Just kidding, you won't fail the entire class, but just this chapter. Which is ten percent of your grade. Which would drop you down to a B, if you have an A. You get no points if it's not turned in by then, and no retakes. And no, just because you didn't take it the first time that doesn't mean it _doesn't count as a 'retake'_." the smirking Professor's announcement was followed by several groans. "Review pages 19-32! Unit two test is the Friday after next! Be prepared. This is not open book- I'm looking at you, Hideo." This made Hideo, somewhat of a class clown by reputation, wince and slowly melt behind his upraised text book as the class tittered in his direction.

After class she headed home to get changed, grabbed her orange and black uniform from the laundry room, then hopped on her bike and went to work. It was an uneventful day, to say the least. A few foreigners even offered her tips, which she wasn't supposed to accept. (What her boss didn't know wouldn't hurt him.)

When she got home, she noticed a blue rental car parked out front. She opened the front door to the unexpected sound of Sayu bawling her eyes out.

At the sound of her sister's distress, Michiko hurried into the living room. Forgetting to announce that she was home, or to even remove her outdoor shoes, she almost ran right into a tall, handsome half-Japanese man in a black trench coat. Looking like he was out of place, he smoothed his short black hair out of his face and gave her a helpless glance, his grey-blue eyes pleading, then turned back toward Sayu whom was sitting on the couch with tissues to her cheeks. Light was sitting beside her trying to console her.

"She- she's dead." she croaked out in a hoarse voice, when Michiko walked around the dark man to find out what was wrong with her sister. Someone was dead? That was not something she was prepared to hear in this lifetime. Floored, Shikako stopped in her tracks. There were blood spatters on Sayu's shirt, and a red stain smearing Light's yellow sweater. Shikako noticed that the man also had specks of blood on the arm of his coat, dried and definitely stained.

Fearing the worst, she was about to ask what happened to their mother when she felt a familiar presence outside. Relief flooded through her. Their mother was approaching the front door. The sound of the door opening, followed by her cheerful greeting, filled the silence.

"I've brought some flowers home," Her mother's voice drifted in from the hall as she changed her shoes, "I see the guest slippers are in use? Does that car outside belong to someone?" Sachiko asked as she turned the corner into the living room, hands burdened by a box with mismatched flowers protruding from the top. Upon seeing the man in her living room, she smiled politely then looked to Michiko curiously.

Sayu's quiet sobbing finally reached her mother's ears, and her face became anything but polite when she noticed the state two of her children were in. "What happened? You're covered in blood! Are you hurt?" Light shook his head, no, they weren't hurt, but it wasn't enough to calm their mother.

"You, did you do this? Did you hurt them?" The man backed away from their mother defensively as she stepped forward into his personal space in her anger. With nerves on edge, he made an aborted reach for a gun. Michiko changed her stance- her hand instinctively going for a kunai holster that just wasn't there- which he noticed, he raised his hands in a peaceful gesture, to placate her, "No, it's nothing like that!" he claimed.

"Nothing like what? What is it like?" Shikako growled out, assessing the negative spaces in the room and just how close she would have to be to get a good grip on him with a shadow tendril. Light looked up in alarm, then got to his feet hastily to get between them.

"Sis, mom, it's OK. This man helped us." Hearing his plea, she calmed a fraction. With Light's back to the man, he didn't see the man's expression go from surprised to a slow acceptance.

"Tell me what happened," their mother urged.

His breathing sounding labored though he hadn't been crying, Light explained, "Someone got their hands on a gun and opened fire in the club. Shot a handful of people. Sayu's friends, Kimiko and Midori, got shot. Kimiko didn't make it to the hospital. Midori is in bad condition at the hospital, but they won't let anyone who isn't family in to see her."

"Sh- She died on her birthday," the girl started sobbing again, mumbling incoherently. There were minuscule bits of confetti clinging to Sayu's ponytail, where knots of hair had fallen loose to hang limply at her shoulder. An unopened birthday package sat on the sofa next to her, also with splotches of red on the wrapper.

Light continued, indicating the person standing before them, "This man was at the club, in the hallway that leads to the karaoke rooms. He tried to stop the attacker after the guy had opened fire on the dance floor in the room at the end of the hall. The gunman backed himself towards the hall, and this guy pulled his own gun on him. But the attacker fired at him, missed, and shot through the outer window behind him. Luckily no one outside got hit. When the glass shattered, this man jumped him. He got him pinned down, and cuffed him."

"His name was Akio Hashira." Sayu hiccuped.

"You know his name?" the man asked, perplexed.

"I told the police, yeah. Several times, even. He was hitting on all the girls, and announcing it. He said he'd be 'Good husband material'. He got rejected by everyone there, including me. He smelled bad. Like he'd been drinking. But- but they weren't serving alcohol there! He said he wanted 'A date with a pretty girl,' and 'Who would the lucky girl be?' but we all told him to go to hell. We- he- we didn't think he'd start shooting!" she whimpered as tears streaked down her face.

"Why did you have a gun in the first place? Guns aren't allowed in Japan." Michiko asked the stranger in their living room, then she thought about what she'd just heard, "You cuffed him? You're law enforcement?"

"Ah... I'm FBI."

Her eyes narrowed, "What is an American FBI agent doing in Japan, in a karaoke club?"

His answer was slow in coming, then stated as if he knew it wouldn't be taken seriously, "Va...cation?"

Michiko crossed her arms over her chest, unknowingly her pose looked just like a certain Uzumaki wearing the black with orange stripes, "With your gun and cuffs? I bet that went over well with customs."

"All right, fine. I'm working on a case. The person I was investigating was in that club. You don't need to know any more than that."

"Do you have identification to prove that?" Light tried to ask. Before anyone could answer, Sayu jumped to her feet, screaming, "WHY DIDN'T YOU STOP HIM!? If you knew he was evil why didn't you do something to stop him? My friend is dead because you didn't stop him!"

"I- I... am truly sorry." he backed away from the irate girl and almost bumped into a table against the far wall. Sachiko took her box and deposited it on the table, then went to her daughter to embrace her, giving her a shoulder to cry on and turning her anger away from their guest, not caring that she was getting dried blood all over her.

"Thank you for helping us, and for bringing us home, but there's no need to stay. I think she's distressed enough as it is." Light stated, indicating that the man should go. "By the way, what was your name? I never caught it. I'm going to be telling my dad, the chief of police, about this."

"I'm certain he'll hear of it eventually," their mother stated in a tone that indicated she would do so herself if nothing else. She leveled a fierce look at the man, though she crossed her arms over her chest defensively.

Shikako felt a cold chill run down her back as Light advanced towards the man slowly, she almost imagined a whisper of a laugh coming from behind her.

"Ah... I... There's really no reason to..." the man stammered, backing up.

"You don't want to give out your name because of Kira, is that it?" Light prompted, his voice level and placating. "You're afraid of someone here telling Kira your name? That's silly. Cowardly, even. You helped us, so why would we ever hurt you? We wouldn't do that to anyone."

"I- I can't- ...Goodbye!" He was out the door as fast as he could change into his shoes. Which reminded Michiko to change her own. After, she locked the door behind him and pressed her face against the back of her arm as she leaned on the door. And here she thought life was going to be easy this time. She'd been waiting for the other shoe to drop. She had no clue what the world she had been reborn into was going to be about, if anything at all, and didn't know quite how to proceed. This seemed to be a starting point. But of what? She couldn't tell.

"He's dead." Light said from the doorway to the living room, leaning against the door frame, hands in his pockets.

Michiko turned to see Light's face, half lit by the light from the living room door. "The guy that he cuffed. One of the bullets he shot hit the light fixture overhead. It fell on the guy after the fight ended. The FBI agent was leading him to the office in the back to wait for the police to pick him up, when the light fixture broke, fell, hit him on the temple. He was knocked to the floor and there was just blood. Blood everywhere." Well, that explains the blood on the agent's coat. The blood on her siblings was probably from Sayu's friends. Light looked a bit pale and sickly, from Michiko's perspective. Her baby brother had never actually seen anyone die before, she knew. There was never any need for violence in this world or in this life, and if there were, she would protect him from it. She was able, she knew how, so why did something like this happen to her siblings? She should have been there to protect them! Seeing things like that in movies or on TV was never the same as in real life, in person. It had so much more impact on you when you had to deal with the fact it was real. Sayu's crying reminded her they also had to deal with the aftermath.

"Today was supposed to have been a good day." he muttered, turning back to the living room. Though her mother had recently brought in a bouquet of flowers, the hallway smelled almost of apples.

Michiko stepped back into the living room and looked down at her despairing sister. "You'll be OK. It will take a while, but you'll get past it. No one wants to hear that, but it's true." Michiko assured her. "It'll hurt, it always will, but the hurt will fade as time goes on." Shikako knew, having lost so many already due to circumstance.

"What do you know? You've never had a friend killed!" Sayu screeched before she pulled away from her mother and ran up the staircase. Sayu couldn't know, she would never know, but it stung to think of it, the depth of that deception- of just being alive.

"Well, dear, you're not wrong." Sachiko shook her head sadly.

.

...

Author's note: And here we break from canon's primary plot development. I've always felt that Light's biggest mistake was killing Raye Penber. So, let's see how it goes for them with Raye and Naomi still alive. *pulling plot out of spandex space*

Some developments are happening faster or on a slightly different time frame than in canon, because honestly it's been years since I watched the anime, and I just caught up on 19 eps, but already had the first two chapters written. I blame it on the fact her presence changes things.

I included chakra for a reason, as there are canon references to a supernatural power in death note. I'm using chakra or a strange type of compatible magic as the explanation. It's not as powerful and potent as actual chakra, and is very draining, so it's very limited in its usefulness. She can sense people around her, move shadows a bit, and do a little tree climbing. I emphasized that in chapter 2 as she was growing and developing. Chakra exhaustion is a serious issue for her now, so using it extremely sparingly is wise.

Someone asked if she remembered how to use weapons, she does. That doesn't mean her body has been conditioned in this civilian life time to have the muscles and reflexes she once had, nor does that mean she has access to those weapons.

9/24 Author's note Edit: *Also, the 48,000 Yen Light mentioned was the 400 US dollars Ryuk mentioned he had in the English language version, which is the version I have seen, and I just went back to edit it and used the current conversion price of US Dollars to Yen. (If it was different in the original Japanese version, I have no idea.) Yes that was an oversight on my part, anonymous guest reviewer. I know the conversion to Yen is more like in US pennies rather than US dollars but I really didn't consider it as I was thinking in my own monetary denominations when I wrote it- I was watching the dub of the anime, and simply wrote that rather than converting it to Japanese currency. I hinted in chapter one that they've been speaking in Japanese, but its written in English (since that's the language I speak) please just take it with that conversion in mind, sorry. I've gone back and fixed it as best I can, considering that. Thank you for pointing it out to me! I like seeing when I've made a mistake so I can correct any problems. I have been writing to try and improve my writing skills so any input is greatly appreciated.

(Edited for continuity and minor errors on 11/12/2015)


	4. Chapter 4: A Friendly Game

Dreaming of Death Note: 4 - A Friendly Game.

(Back to the present day now.)

Shikako knew Chess and Shogi weren't too different from one another. The games are both derived from the same parent origin. Pawns, most noticeably, move and capture differently, and there's one each of the bishop and rook in Shogi. In Go you place pieces together to build forts and capture territories. Sometimes Shikako even missed playing Pai Sho, which was like a hectic circular mix of all of those games combined. Factoring in the fact that Shikako knew how to play all of those games, and being reincarnated she had played them quite often, she wasn't too shabby a player at any of them. She could see early on that L was exceptionally skilled at English chess.

During her life in the Naruto-verse she'd become skilled in knowing how to use each piece to it's fullest potential on the fly, like men on the battlefield during a skirmish. Even so, her twin brother Shikamaru could always defeat her at shogi (except that one time when Ino distracted him*, she remembered, amused, whether or not he agreed that counted as a win didn't matter in her opinion. She would take any victory.) She'd never been able to beat her dad at the game in her lifetime, though neither had her brother to both of their consternation. They'd been trying for years. L, however, was proving to be a remarkably difficult opponent, in league with both of them.

"You can call me Ryuzaki. How did you know who I am? That is not common knowledge." He asked finally as he moved a pawn forward two spaces. He was playing white by virtue of the fact that was the set of pieces lain out on the board before him when they each took a seat. She liked that set up, that she had the set of pieces best representing the darkness. They'd been playing in silence, (which she'd been quite content with, thank you.) steadily moving pieces in turn, for the past ten minutes. They each took time between moves to actually think things through, though to an outsider it wouldn't appear to be a slow game. Neither of them seemed to feel this was a difficult pace. They both weren't really concentrating on the game itself, but on the bigger game going on in the room. She could feel the silent words between them, almost slithering through the shadows of her thoughts.

"Process of elimination, Ryuzaki. I know everyone Dad works with, and look at where we are," she said dryly, testing out the name and knowing this was exactly what had gone without saying between them earlier. Two sentences does not a monologue make, so there. "Why the surveillance?" Shikako asked as Ryuzaki absorbed her last explanation with a bemused expression.

"For the past five days your family has been under examination by the task force for potential proximity to Kira. How do you know everyone your father works with? I don't recall you having access to that information." She paused in mid-motion at his words, having been moving a rook forward a few spaces. A thousand thoughts filtered through her suddenly cold brain, not a single one of them pleasant. He stared at her intently, an index finger to his mouth, warping his upper lip out of place though he seemed not to notice. Why would he think, or know, things about her at all? There was definitely more than the surveillance going on.

"I worked on a few insurance fraud cases with Light and Dad. Light did the investigating work, putting two and two together. He seemed to have fun with it. He needed more data, so once he figured out who was involved, I volunteered to do the leg work. The staff was shorthanded at the time, and we had dad's approval so long as we kept our distance and only observed. It was actually better for gathering information since I didn't stand out in that neighborhood; You know, a teenager walking down the street checking a cellphone is easy to dismiss. The damning evidence against them happened to be the photographs I took for the police on that very phone, and they kept them as evidence in each case. I never did get my phone back. It's in the chain of evidence log that I was the one collecting it. It counts as a witness contribution which is usually just verbal hearsay, but with pictures it's proof just the same." She was carefully not telling him about the phone she'd kept secret even from her relatives, just for emergencies, which she happened to have on her at the moment, though it was always off. He didn't need to know about such things. It was her completely private number.

"I see." He said.

"About those cameras, for our safety? What started that, was there a threat from Kira?" She raised a single brow, her left one. (She'd had to practice in the mirror for a while to get this body to obey her odd whim in that regard. So worth it, for moments like these. Not everyone can raise a single eyebrow.) "Why put cameras in private places like the bathroom and toilet then? Would you have run in if I had slipped and fallen and couldn't get up?" She asked slyly. That, if anything, deserved raised brows. (But it only gets one.) She was intentionally not revisiting the thought that this strange man had presumably seen her naked, or using the toilet, among other things. The creep-factor was already heading towards the roof but that thought put it right through it. After a few lifetimes she'd gotten over some minor inconveniences around modesty in favor of practicality, especially if it meant 'act like you don't notice the big bad is watching,' but that was just the life of a ninja. That didn't mean she had to like it. That also didn't mean she had to allow it. Ninjas have their ways of not being seen.

He shook his head as he wiggled his toes away from her view below his side of the table, his face blankly reticent. Sliding his knight to advance across the board, he answered, "Ah, no. No specific threat to your family was issued from Kira, no. Also had you have fallen you would have been on your own." Here his voice took on a deeper tone, "Though you should be more careful, if falling is one of your concerns." He lightened his speech once more, "The cameras were not necessarily placed there for your safety. The incident with the FBI agent at the karaoke club was what instigated the camera surveillance.

"Interesting, there was only record of Light's involvement in the insurance fraud cases, and nothing mentioning you. In fact, no person mentioned your involvement at all. I didn't feel the need to check chain of evidence reports. Perhaps I should." He mumbled the last part to himself while biting his thumb. Shikako didn't know quite how they'd ended up having multiple conversations simultaneously but it was getting the job done, so she wasn't going to complain. Ryuzaki seemed to be the talkative sort, so if he did the talking she was fine with that.

"No matter your reasoning it was still inappropriate." she sniffed, acting offended. "And so what? I was working from the shadows. He can take the credit." She paused, surprised she'd actually said such a pun aloud, even if it was merely a personal inside-joke. "You suspect one of us. Dad? No, he's been with you this entire time, hasn't he?" She glanced at the closed door between her and her father, contemplatively. There was probably no pizza left, and she was beginning to feel hungry, too. She was tempted to walk out there and take a slice, but decided against it.

She remembered Light's odd behavior when interacting with the FBI agent. Something strange was going on. "Mom? Light or Sayu? Me? Which of us is it, anyways?" she queried, sounding almost bored with the conversation, eyes in half slits as she stared at the game board lazily. It was an expression she would have recognized as customarily familiar on Shikamaru's face, had she been able to see her own reflection.

"You don't expect an honest answer, and yet you ask regardless," the detective blinked slowly. His long, dark eyelashes made harsh shadows against the blotches under his wide eyes by the direct light of the standing lamp beside him. She looked up and for the fraction of a second, thought for certain the Kazekage was sitting across from her. The thought faded when a smirk crossed his pale features, "I like that."

"I suppose I have a habit of pushing things," she admitted halfheartedly, feeling an odd heat in her cheeks. He was not going to embarrass her, as she would not regret anything she'd done so far, in any lifetime, or else she wouldn't have done it in the first place. Embarrassment or not, she couldn't help flushing at the comment, slamming down a pawn vindictively to steal one of his. She probably shouldn't have, as that left one of her bishops open to attack. So what if it was true, in just about every lifetime? For once, she'd like to land in a universe that didn't have it out to get her. For a while, here, she thought she had. That didn't mean she didn't train though.

She knew she had to fight, had to be strong, to make it out alive, but this time it seemed like there was really no danger. She'd even become too comfortable with that thought, that here there was no crisis. She'd practiced trying to build up her chakra network, just the same, though her regular attempts at physical conditioning were usually questioned by her relatives as a slight eccentricity. She was beginning to think the cosmic powers that be, an oft imagined force dictating where she lands every time she reincarnated, were just a bunch of pen monkeys locked in a room with each other, flinging ideas back and forth, until they managed to scrape up something resembling a coherent plot between them. She fervently hoped they found a nice, happy one in the near future, then at least someone would know where this crazy train was heading. Meanwhile, she was steadily going bananas.

She glowered at Ryuzaki's white king as if it held the source of all her problems. Had he just expertly dodged her series of questions by stating the obvious while ending two of the three conversations? The sneak.

"You didn't even stop to think that the game of chess wouldn't be an adequate tool to use to assess your detective skills," his odd smile reached his eyes this time as if he were sharing a secret, staring over the board at her. He moved his knight once more, pressing forward. The more time she spent around him the more she felt like Shino's bugs were crawling on her. It must be his strange way of expressing himself, almost like he was aping the appearance of emotions. His tone of voice never really changed much, except for the odd intentional sounding times where the pitch would raise just so as if to highlight his points, and made her wonder if he did that consciously. He almost sounded like he was lecturing.

"I guess not." She let it go at that, he could think of it what he wanted. In the overly militaristic setting of a ninja village, where the adults taught battlefield strategies through maps and board games to the next generation, almost every child had grown up with some form of this training. It was quite a commonplace practice in hidden villages. Her frame of mind, being different from that of a civilian girl's from that world, wouldn't have even considered the suggestion an oddity. So he had noticed. Deductive skills weren't everything. "But you're the professional. You're the world-renowned detective. You figure things out; However, I'm certain you can't do everything yourself. Otherwise you wouldn't need the task force, with or without police cooperation. You might need people who are capable in other fields and have other skills."

"Such as? What skills do you have, Shikako?" ' _I'm a high ranking Konoha-gakure ninja. I have had a bounty on my head and my name in several bingo books... no, can't say that. Well, I'm good at shadow puppets, want me to put on a show?'_ She opened the can of worms on that one but her only actual response to it was to move her bishop to the left of the board to counter his aggressive knight, and shrug her narrow shoulders. She wondered if she'd be as bad as Kira if she did put on a shadow-puppet show and purposefully induced heart attacks as a result, then dismissed it all together.

She knew she probably shouldn't be conversing too much on some topics. Some things are better left vague, hinted at, or simply unspoken. _'What does he expect a nineteen year old girl to do? He'll draw his own conclusions based on what he sees and what he needs. Whatever it is, I can work with. On everything else, I haven't really decided yet. I just know I have to do something and can no longer sit idle. This world isn't as docile and harmless as I thought it would be. Why would I even think that to begin with?'_ She shook her head at her internal monologue, not knowing her opponent was taking that as an answer. He assumed she simply refused to share.

The world seemed to have decided that wherever she goes she had to be the monkey wrench thrown in to incapacitate fate. If there is a super villain or mass murderer about, she was bound and determined to figure him out and do something about him, each and every time. If only she had read more comic books in her past lifetimes. One thing she knew though, was that every world she was dropped in had once been referenced in some form in a story in her original life. She had taken to remedying that situation the only way she knew how- Through the internet. Modern worlds have their advantages. By reading and absorbing all she could in assorted media she hoped to get a leg up in the next lifetime. It pays to be prepared. As an end result, she'd watched a lot of anime in a proactive attempt to stay alive later. She just didn't have memories of this world in particular, that she knew of, to do her any good.

"You are modest." He stated, reading in perhaps a bit too deep, "You don't believe in your own abilities. That is a fault, but not an unappealing one. It can, however, damage your ability to function in the future if left unchecked. You should be more confident in yourself, Shikako. You can accomplish much more."

Confidence? Where would she find that without certainty of the outcome? The outcome of a plot she knew nothing about? A lack of confidence and the presence of uncertainty were two separate entities, but they were often confused for one another by misinterpretation. It didn't mean she wouldn't move ahead with what needed to be done if she saw it needed doing. It just meant she didn't know if doing it would be of any use without the context of the world she was in to back it up. It was only during times when the plot was following through precisely as planned in any universe that she instinctively knew nothing would go wrong. During those times everyone around her could follow her example to stay calm and clear headed. It wasn't even intentional, but the end result of foreknowledge. When she remembered what would happen next it was almost peaceful, to be able to mentally stand back and simply 'know' that everything would work out. She had placed the pieces on the board in exactly the position they needed to be in for the game to progress the way she recalled, thus if it held true she could be confident that the outcome would be the same. She very much doubted she'd magically find the answers to this world's crisis by picking up a Shounen Jump and getting a free _cheat code to the universe_ as an added bonus insert.

Playing devil's advocate, she'd tried just that in this lifetime to receive a sudden shock. She'd been flipping through the pages, wondering if anything of use could be found in the magazine, when she stumbled upon a full color picture of none other than _Orochimaru_. Seeing his pale, serpentine face, slit yellow eyes, and that ridiculously long tongue, a shock of irrational fear flooded her system. His cartoon face morphed into that of a memory of a real life equivalent, yellow eyes glinting in the dark of the forest of impossibly tall trees. A creeping sensation settled into her bones. It almost felt like his killing intent, or perhaps simply the memory of it. It choked her, swallowed her air, and morphed into a pain in her chest she couldn't ignore. She'd dropped the book, and with the last of her breath she let out a loud scream in the middle of the bookstore. She hadn't felt anything like that in so very, very long, and was terribly unprepared. The manager escorted her out, but after not even ten minutes of hyperventilating while pacing on the sidewalk outside, she managed to calm herself. Irrational fears don't just stop because you know they don't make sense, but this one had gripped her pretty badly. It wouldn't stop her. She ran back in and bought every sequential copy of the mangas she could get her hands on.

The story of Naruto existed in this world, and that gave her hope that maybe she could find her way back. But it was the same one she remembered- Shikako herself never appeared in the Naruto that was printed in this world. Something about that was simultaneously heartbreaking and yet consoling all the same. The more she read, the more she remembered, and sometimes it hurt too much to just turn the page.

She knew what hurt the most was the realization of an expectation at heart. She'd cut the pictures of her family and friends out of the book lovingly and reverently hung them on her wall. The Konoha rookies lined her standing bedroom mirror. Shikamaru's picture was now hanging on the wall beside her bed. She kept a full color picture of Shikamaru and one of team 7 in her wallet, too. Sentimental? _Absolutely_.

Curious, she had tried to find anything about Aang, Sokka, Katara, or any of the others. Avatar, to her knowledge should have come out a year ago if this place was anything like the one she barely remembered, but their stories didn't seem to exist in this world. There was absolutely nothing to find. She didn't know what to think of that discovery.

She took comfort in the fact she had yet to appear in an episode of Icha Icha, thankfully, and had once shuddered at the potential when the thought dawned on her that it could very well be a frightening possibility in the future. (Though she promised herself that if it ever truly did happen, and she managed to make it back home, she would teach Jiraya a new level of pain.)

Ryuzaki took her extended silence as a personal moment of introspection on what he'd just said, though she hadn't really heard it through her musing. He continued, not even looking up from their game, "Perhaps you're right, Shikako. I wish to stop Kira before he manages to kill once more. That doesn't mean that I must do it alone. Even one more life lost is one too many," he said the last part in a quiet voice. Quiet, because he and she both knew it was impossible at this rate. Without damning evidence to bring it to the public, and a method to counter his attacks safely, they simply lacked the knowledge needed for the situation- there was no way to stop a being like Kira, in this world. The world, though, expected them to. "That being said, how would you feel if I run my innermost thoughts by you? A sort of sounding board."

Not waiting for her response, and not bothering to look up from the board game, he hastened, "I believe your brother might be Kira."

"Absurd." Shikako spat out, picturing a memory of her baby brother prodding her with vegetables as she curled up on a floor pillow, a worrisome look on his scrunched face. Light was incapable of such evils. "Have you run this stupidity past my dad? He'd tell you, that's impossible. Light would never hurt anyone."

"I did. That is why he allowed the cameras and wiretaps, to get undeniable evidence either way; Failing that, we could acquire questionable unanswered potential in regards to the investigation."

She snorted, as if such a thing would do anyone any good. "Why him?"

"My broadcast in which Lind L. Tailor was murdered, bearing my name and symbol, happened to only be shown in this region. That narrowed the search for Kira down significantly. Also, someone was accessing information that only the Kira investigation team at the police headquarters had any access to. Someone was doing this during the evenings, and weekends, based on the digital time stamp of the accessed files. Quite a specific structure to the day, like the comings and goings of a student. The files that were accessed were held by only a handful of individuals. Only the higher-ups in the investigation force had access to some of these records. Your father, among them. In the spirit of international cooperation, the FBI came to investigate the police involved in the Kira investigation due to this info leak. The FBI agent assigned to your family reported a strange incident in which-"

"Sayu's friend died. I know. I spoke to him, that agent. What does that have to do with the Kira investigation?" She was honestly lost. This one thing did not connect to the other.

"One of my contacts came to me with information that troubled her. She claimed her fiance, the very FBI agent mentioned, had access to information that was not released to the police investigating the karaoke club incident. He dismissed it as inconsequential, but she followed her gut instinct as she always does. It was too convenient, too strange an incident to simply ignore. A man enters the karaoke club, kills a girl, injures another whom dies in the hospital later, only to die himself by being hit on the head by a light fixture he himself accidentally shot? Strange. Then there's Light's involvement," He said, while emphasizing each event with hand gestures.

"I didn't know Midori died. They haven't been allowing visitors in to the hospital. That's too bad. Still, a freak accident has nothing to do with Light," she denied. She hated the fact she would have to go home and relay the sad news to her already broken sister. It wouldn't make Light any happier either, hearing any of this.

"Light was overheard by the FBI agent, at the club, saying that _'This world would be better off without people like him!'_ and within seconds, the perpetrator of the incident was dead. What do you take that to mean?"

Shikako gave him a slow blink, as understanding this sort of thing should be blatant to anyone with any basic social skills, "Light's little sister's friend was just killed in front of him. How can you expect him to be all happy and sunshine about it? Of course he had ill will toward him! Anyone would in that position. He's allowed to say whatever he wants, unless we're becoming the verbal thought police now."

"Precisely, but Light, from what I've noticed, is very childish. I've been watching your family for five days now, and his behavior is suspect. I won't go into details, there's no time for that, but one moment he acts mature, the next he reverts to childish thinking. For one touted as being a genius, that is unfortunate. Kira, too, is childish, in that he wasted no time at all to try to kill me due to my taunting him- or at least, at Lind's taunting." Looking up into Ryuzaki's dark eyes, with a flash of memory, Shikako was reminded of Sasuke's spinning Sharingan, and his own childish pout when things weren't going the way he'd planned almost mirrored that before her. Teenage boys can be 'childish,' nothing wrong with that as they're stuck traveling the thin line between being a youth and an adult. Just focusing on this as being relevant proved Ryuzaki's own childishness, in her opinion.

"He's a seventeen year old boy. By that qualifier alone, they're all childish. If you're using that as undeniable proof, you're delusional." she said in a deadpan voice. She took another pawn. He'd been ignoring it in the middle of the board. If she did ask about the details, she probably wouldn't get a response. She had a reasonable suspicion that L was lying about having any proof at all even if he was watching her family intently.

As if not hearing her response, Ryuzaki watched as she placed the pawn beside the board, and said, "Even though he was the one under suspicion, he still provided a way for my agent to contact me. Interesting, how he approached her first. Her fiance was against her communicating with me, apparently he was wishing her to settle down and not participate in police work any longer. Light allowed her to borrow his phone outside the police station today, just before you arrived, and he called your father. Thus, she was able to get her message to me- and air her suspicions. That Kira can kill with more than just heart attacks." Ryuzaki studied her face intently at this revelation, though it took him quite a while to actually get to his point.

She swallowed, suddenly tasting bile, wondering just what kind of jutsu this enemy possessed, forgetting for a moment that jutsus don't really exist in this world, "That would be a frightening development. But you were watching us before then."

"Of course, I already have been harboring this suspicion through simple investigating, as the most likely chance that the files were accessed would have been while you were at work, while your mother was at class, but Light was at home with your father's computer. Or even his own. There have been inmates dying of causes other than heart attack, leaving odd messages. Those messages have been accessed by your home network. Usually they involve telling the task force to stand down. The information was uploaded to the police's network for the task force's perusal, it could easily have been compromised. It was a major deciding factor in monitoring your house... But it's always good to get a second opinion. Getting it from the fiance of the FBI agent is an added bonus. I've worked with her in the past, she's reliable and doesn't make mistakes that easily. If something is troubling her, it's worth looking into. It decisively increased the percentage of possibility that Light is Kira, at least by my calculations."

' _He calculates social interactions coupled with potential incidents of evidence in percentages? What kind of person does that? He must be pulling them out of his ass if he thinks they're in any way valid.'_ Mentally, Shikako sighed.

His rook made a move across the board, as if at random, and she had long ago stopped following the actual game in favor of making auto-pilot moves, her mind reeling from the fact her family, specifically her brother, was under scrutiny. Playing along with this strange man's delusion, she asked, "Where exactly are your calculations at?"

"At about ten percent, that Light Yagami is Kira. That is, until you arrived when it dropped down to merely five. You, however, are now at ten. Don't let that bother you though, it's just basic suspicions on the part of the investigation. Often times the perpetrator will try to insert himself into the investigation, in an attempt to gain favor or amuse himself. Sometimes it is to simply watch it play out, or perhaps even to avoid capture entirely; I'm sure you realize there are infinite reasons. Those, being most common." Her bishop chased his rook across the board, he blocked it in the next move.

"Swell. I'll write it down in my diary as the highlight of my day. So why let me in here and confide in me like this? Seems a strange thing to do with someone you suspect of being a homicidal mass murdering psychopath with a childish sense of humor and magic-scary-crazy-telepathy-powers-of-doom-and-gloom." Seeing an opening, she moved her nearest piece closer to his king. Almost.

"You know what they say about keeping a specific distance with your friends and enemies?" It wasn't a question. He finally decided to move his queen.

"Hm. _Troublesome_."

Their game came to a close as L mopped the floor with her at the last minute but she put up a decent fight right up until then and was redeemed when he confirmed that no one had come that close to beating him in years. If she's been paying real attention to the game after all that time, she probably would have been annoyed. He was very happy with her advanced chess skills, at least. Undeterred, she readily challenged him to another game for some time in the future. His refusal or acceptance alone was all she needed to know if she would be welcomed back to the task force, or even just to chat.

With a small smile that didn't quite meet sad eyes, he agreed.

.

...

 **Author's Note:** *I wrote this, then thought where did I read that Ino distracted him during a game of Shogi?- I went back and checked a few chapters of DOS. I figured it wasn't there but looked anyway. I then checked ' _Switch_ ' and yeah... So, reference to _Lady Hallen's 'Dreaming of Sunshine Switch', chapter 27-"25"._ This fic is not in that world, nor is it a continuation of it, though. It was just some flavor that amused me so I included a reference to it. If it happened in DOS I honestly forgot.

Have I given away the fact that I actually can't play Shogi and am no good at Chess? Go is my game, and I'm not even good at that, only 16Kyu. Get me a trading card game and I'm good to _go_. (Hello, bad pun, I missed you.)

(Edited on 11/12/2015 to fix continuity and minor errors.)


	5. Chapter 5: Evidence

**Dreaming of Death Note: 5 - Evidence.**

(Edited on 11/12/2015 for continuity and minor errors.)

"Michik- I mean- _Shikako_ , sorry. Here's that file you wanted. I collected everything related to this case from that specific penitentiary, so it should all be here. Just give it back to me when you're done reading it. The new deaths that occurred last night are in the file cabinet in the other room already. We've been filing them there daily. Thumb drives don't leave the room though, and have to stay in the small drawer under the computers." Matsuda said as he dropped a thick manila envelope down on the table in front of Shikako's cup of tea. The fact that it was so thick was disturbing, a large number of people had died at that prison. The team had to begin investigating every death as potential of Kira's involvement ever since the suggestion that Kira kills with more than heart attacks was proposed.

For it being the digital age, they had a lot that was stored on paper. Ryuzaki had decided since the files were being accessed online it was safer for new evidence to be processed on paper, and on carefully controlled thumb drives. That didn't mean there wasn't a digital trail, just that it was now broken up and so disjointed that the person trying to acquire the information would have to look in many places to get all of it. While this helped to disguise the direction the investigation was heading in, it did nothing to help the process. This made reviewing it much more tedious. This also made sharing it, when absolutely necessary, with other departments and government bodies more time consuming and inefficient. (To sum it up, they weren't happy at all.) Keeping it offline was a wise decision so that any potential digital spy couldn't follow them that easily, complete with immediately apparent drawbacks: Stacks upon stacks of papers, log books, and files piled evenly in rows along the table, reminiscent of Tsunade's desk lined with mission scrolls and reports. At least it was all in order, or so she hoped. Shikako half expected to find a bottle of sake nestled between the stacks like Tsunade used to do to hide her alcohol from Shizune on a busy day.

Shikako had met Watari (L's helper and voice to the world) that morning, and he had generously offered her a cup of tea to start the day. As first impressions go, she thought him to be a kindly old man. Then again most people thought that of the Third Hokage mistaking his age as frailty, and for ninjas that was often a big mistake. She didn't doubt this Watari would have a sharp mind like the famous detective, or have other qualities of note she couldn't immediately ascertain. She'd done her own looking online, knowing she wouldn't find anything about them, and true to that suspicion aside from mention of cases they'd previously assisted with solving, there was nothing of note.

 _'Either way he makes good tea,'_ she surmised while taking a generous sip. He did make this, right? Had to have been him, as he was the only one currently bustling about with food preparation on a long metal cart situated in the back of the room. Sometime later when he brought a refill he also left a huge (by her standards) sundae next to it. Odd thing to eat in the morning, but she shrugged that off with her first bite. The chocolate and vanilla mixture melted in her mouth and she forgot all about what time of day it was. It tasted delicious!

It was actually her favorite kind, in this lifetime. Strawberries, bananas, and chocolate drizzled over vanilla, topped with chopped nuts. It was odd to her, how in every lifetime her taste buds decided to change what they could stand and what unique flavors they liked. In this lifetime, sweet things were intensely satisfying. What tasted good and what tasted awful to her was a mystery at birth. Allergies? No idea. Trial and error was the way to find out. (Bees? Yeah, not good this time around. Very much allergic.)

Even scents were different to her, with every incarnation. The smell of any kind of wood smoke actually bothered her intensely now. It was an interesting way of learning her way through the world, adjusting to how her new bodies reacted to her new environments. It was a bit of an adventure to discover something she adored in a past life was equally as pleasant, or in reverse, regretfully distasteful in this new lifetime. Either way, she assumed if she ate the sea prunes that the water tribe used to favor, provided she could find anything like them in this world, she'd probably still feel the same about them as she did back then (regardless of popular opinion.)

How did this strange Watari guy know her favorite kind of ice cream? He must have asked her father. Soichiro was also eating one of his favorite kinds, so she assumed this was a common occurrence at their traveling headquarters. Ice cream in the morning, and what appeared to be a near diabetes inducing level of sugar intake always at Ryuzaki's fingertips. The oddities never ceased.

Familiarizing herself with Kira and his handiwork at Ryuzaki's insistence, she'd been going over the Kira murder case files for the past hour, while the rest of the task force was diligently investigating records of previously overlooked deaths that were not heart attacks. Everyone had their hands full, and there were stacks of paper on every available surface. She wasn't certain how everyone was keeping track of what goes where.

Her offering to help with the investigation had been an in-the-moment kind of thing. She'd really just hunted them down to inform her father that the house was being observed. She hadn't wanted to give away the fact she knew to the observer whom she honestly thought could have been Kira holding them hostage against her father. Since Soichiro never answered his phone or came home anymore, she had wanted to get answers. Opportunities like that don't show up every day, but she still wondered why L took her up on it when she'd blurted out that she was here to help. Well, aside from his own suspicions; Keep your enemies close, and all that.

When she'd first arrived at the hotel hideout early that morning, bright eyed and ready to work, her father was strictly against it. "She should go home. She has classes tomorrow, things to study. Doesn't she have work?" she could hear him arguing with Ryuzaki in the corner as the man steadily worked his way through a tall banana and nut topped sundae.

"Today is my day off, and I don't have classes until the afternoon tomorrow. That one is actually an online class. I just have to read the book and answer the questions on the online quiz. It's simple, really easy." she'd countered, not even looking up from the case files she was reviewing, "And I can help. Just let me get the pertinent information, then I can start contributing. I need to understand what all is going on so I don't make any mistakes, right?"

"That is true." Ryuzaki said, licking his spoon. "We would not want to interfere with your work and schooling, but anything you could contribute would be welcome." Spoon then clean, he picked up a piece of banana with his fingers and ate it that way instead, ignoring the spoon.

"Then I'll do my best," She assured them, though that didn't placate her father by the agitated expression he wore, he held his tongue just the same.

Matsuda answered a firm sounding knock at the hotel door. A man with a short afro entered the room, his pale-toned green suit looked dull in the bright morning sunlight streaming in through the open window. He was Aizawa, she recognized. He almost stumbled over the coffee table when he noticed Shikako was sitting at the back of the room. "What is she doing here?" He asked, his voice booming over everyone.

"Helping." was Matsuda's quick reply as he followed the other man across the room, "Isn't it great? We have another person to assist us with the Kira case! We're calling her Shikako Nara now. She's getting acquainted with the-"

Clenching his hands, Aizawa grit his teeth, then said, "You know what, I don't care. I _can't_ care. This is insane. You bring in a suspect and let her get her hands on everything we've been working on? Ryuzaki, I can't understand a thing you do."

"It was not my doing." Ryuzaki said softly, looking at Shikako's back, and rudely pointing his spoon in her direction, "She came here on her own."

Aizawa's expression belied his incredulity, rather making him appear angry. His voice, however, said otherwise, "That... Matsuda, you can't be inviting any person you like. Just because Michiko has worked with us bef-"

"I didn't!" He protested, hands upraised before his chest to ward off Aizawa's seemingly angry approach. "Why does everyone always blame me?"

Confused, the man turned to Soichiro instead, "Then, Chief, what gives? You brought your daughter-"

"I did not." His firm denial echoed in the room between bites of his cold treat.

Shikako took a bite of her ice cream, waiting for the awkwardness to die down. When all eyes were on her, she sighed. "I followed Matsuda here. I found my way here myself. Happy?"

"We are using code names, if you two recall." Ryuzaki threw out offhandedly, not even looking in their direction as he perused his own pile of papers. "Let's not throw your lives away with carelessness by forgetting our aliases."

"Yes, sorry, I followed Matsui."

"Yes, I- uh... I forgot, Ryuzaki. Sorry." He seemed to calm for a moment before turning to the girl once more. "You- you found the _hidden_ _headquarters_ of the Kira investigation on your own?" Aizawa actually sounded impressed. Then he backtracked on what she'd said, accusingly calling out his teammate, "Matsui!"

"It wasn't me! Er... I guess, it was?" His brow furrowed in confusion. "If she followed me... then. Yeah."

She shook her head, "Not that hard. I just followed a familiar face that I knew was working with Dad. Don't get up in arms about it."

Hands on his hips, Aizawa's head drooped to face the floor. He stance screamed that he was so done with everything.

Raising his head, an unfamiliar glint in his eye as his eyes traveled over her, he turned away. He pulled his phone out of his pocket out of habit, and left it on the coffee table beside every other phone that had been piled there upon entering, then headed into the next room to update himself on the previous nights death toll record which was stored in there. Ryuzaki had insisted that they leave their phones turned off and on the table at all times. He found it quite strange that Shikako hadn't bothered to buy herself a new phone, and seemed to think the stereotypical girl would have a few of them. He'd asked her more than once to leave her phone there, and had a bemused expression at her consistent response of not having one. She even thought he'd tried to pick her pocket once to see if she had one, but the only thing she was carrying was her wallet, and it was still intact.

Shikako was so used to not having cellphones that actually having one felt odd to her. She kept forgetting to put time on it and pay her bill, so almost never had service when she did have one. She actually had to remind him that morning that her phone, which Light had gotten her for her birthday this last year, was still in an evidence locker at the station. In response, her father promised to get her a new one, looking ashamed of himself as he said so. He'd apologized for their keeping it as if he could have done something about it, but she knew his hands were tied there. She didn't mind so much, but it was a convenience.

Ryuzaki meandered over to where she was sitting, a wide white envelope in his hands. He sat across from her and pulled from the envelope a series of photos. Showing them to her as if in no real order, he asked, "What do you make of these?"

Inspecting the photos splayed out on the table, she grimaced, "Dead bodies, I assume." They indeed were corpses, though the cause of death of some of them was difficult to ascertain. One of them clearly had hung himself, and so she knew these were the photos of the very victims she had just been reading about in the file she'd been perusing, if the writing in blood on the walls behind them all was any indicator. She'd just finished reading up on that one. One man had slit his own throat and had quickly written his message as the blood left his body. It was a gruesome thing to look at.

One photo had something other than the usual message written behind the corpse, _'God smiles kindly on the righteous'_ was smeared across the window at the back of the cell. This particular cell was shaped differently from the others, and in all those other cells they bore messages such as:

 _'Stop searching'_

 _'Your attempts are futile.'_

 _'You will_ never _find me...'_

 _'I am doing God's work!'_

"Are these messages from Kira? It seems like he's trying to communicate through the dead, and warn anyone off of searching for him." She asked, "I read some of these before in the files."

"We believe so, but it's interesting that you immediately think they came from Kira. They are logged as evidence, in suicide and murder, yes, but why Kira?" Ryuzaki said, his finger in his mouth again. He was sitting in his customary crouch once more, eyes wide and watching her.

"Would they be in the evidence taken for the Kira investigation if they weren't potential evidence of Kira's activities? Possibly, but not very likely unless you thought there was a connection. You said the other day that Kira was leaving messages... no, that inmates were dying of things other than heart attacks, and leaving messages behind. You wouldn't have mentioned it at all if you didn't in some way relate that to the Kira case. That was why I made that leap of logic. The fact that it's here with the evidence means it's something worth looking at so it's not that far of a leap." She piled the photos together and handed them back to him. He stared at her, instead of taking them. The photos held before him, her hand outstretched, made the motion (or now lack of motion) uncomfortable. "Unless you're showing me photos from cases unrelated to Kira?"

"I see. I suppose I did say that the other day." He continued to watch her as if expecting her to say something else about it. There really wasn't anything else to say, so he answered her question, "Only a few of these are directly related to the Kira case in that they are being used as potential evidence. The other two are not. Can you guess which two?"

 _'Guessing games, really? How about the ones I didn't read about in the file?'_ She frowned, wanting to get back to reading the files rather than participating in his childish whims as she wasn't finished yet. She felt like she was wasting time. Aloud, she said, "The ones referencing God I suppose. They seem different from the 'cease and desist' ones."

"Yes, they do seem different. But actually, that is wrong." He smiled, his finger receding into his mouth as he did so. "' _God smiles kindly on the righteous'_ is one of the messages in the Kira investigation, but the _'You will_ never _find me...'_ that was actually from a few years back. The rest of that message was left in a suicide note in the man's room. It went on to say, in a poetic note, _'You will_ never _find me in Heaven as I have_ _committed crimes that will leave us_ all _in Hell.'_ True there's religious references there, but it was nothing to do with Kira. _'I am doing God's work'_ was also from another case, in which a man had been kidnapping young children from their homes and selling them to people previously denied adoption rights. This man's crimes spanned several countries for many years and broke up many families."

"Fascinating. Do you just get off on messing with people or something? Why don't you only show me evidence in the Kira case rather than trying to confuse me with things that _have nothing to do with it?_ " She stressed the last part with an almost growl, irritated and not caring if she showed it. Was he for real? This man really knew how to get on people's nerves, and here she was taking this seriously! He was acting like it was a game.

"Oh, sorry. I just found that... interesting." he 'hmm'ed as he climbed out of the seat in a gangling looking gait, walking barefooted on the plush carpet back toward his previously occupied chair. "I did wonder if Kira would lie about knowing which is which."

"I would think it would be in his favor to act innocent," She said. She rolled her eyes and went back to reading the files. Having seated himself in his customary uncomfortable looking crouch, he stared forlornly at his sundae, honestly appearing to be saddened when he realized it had melted in his absence. She quietly snorted at his desolate expression, which made him look like a kid. Watari remedied that by setting another sundae, twice as tall as the original one, down before him. His face instantly lit up, also like a kid. Cleaning up the other one, the old man stoically walked back to his food cart, acting the part of a dutiful butler. This made Shikako wonder just who was in charge between the two of them, L or Watari? She supposed they'd never tell her.

Mogi arrived an hour later, having been taking a turn at the police headquarters so that the building always had a member of the Kira investigating team present to take calls and gather data, when he was relieved by Ukita to take his own shift. Mogi wasn't as outwardly startled by the sudden intrusion of Yagami's daughter into their mobile headquarters, and took it in stride if his brief pause in the doorway upon seeing her, then the shrug of his shoulder and glance in Ryuzaki's direction was anything to go by. Shikako was almost done reading the thick file on the inmates and how they died when he sat down beside her at the table, setting a cup of coffee directly before her. She realized as she looked up that her tea had long been gone and her ice cream had been finished off ages ago. He sipped his own cup, contemplatively watching her, his face half shadowed in the light coming from the window across from him.

She said, "Thanks," and took a grateful sip of the hot beverage. It was dark brewed and strong, and a familiar brand. There was no lack of sugar and cream in the room, as it was nestled in its own little dish on the center of several tables, easily accessible.

"I'm not surprised you're here." He told her, snagging a sugar cube for himself to stir it into his drink. "Ryuzaki actually mentioned that either you or Light would show up eventually. Or try to contact us in some way. It's eerie how he's never wrong. I walk in today and here you are. He also said whichever one of you did show up would be the most suspicious. I have my eye on you."

"That's nice, but he's wrong about one thing." She said, looking him in the eye. Meeting her stare, he sipped his drink.

"What is that?" He raised both of his brows curiously. He grabbed another sugar cube.

"I'm not Kira." She said as she closed the file, finished.

"The truth will out." Ryuzaki said, biting into a strawberry coated with chocolate which he'd plucked from his ice cream.

She had read up on the files of the victims whose names and faces had appeared on television before they died but that hadn't made it into the the prison system. Truthfully those people shouldn't have even been considered actual criminals yet as they had not been tried in court nor found guilty of anything. Kira still killed them indiscriminately. Every one of them died of heart attacks during the broadcast that mentioned their names and showed their faces. Some of them died in transit from one place to another, others died in police custody, and a few died in the comfort of their own homes, either out on parole or having escaped capture. There were no more enlightening messages between them, so it appeared Kira wasn't using them to communicate. His messages seemed to only come from the prisons, where the correctional officers would find them immediately.

"So what do you think about it?" Mogi asked her, still eyeing his mostly full drink.

"The fact that some of them seem to have died with a purpose like the messages in the prison inmates deaths... that means Kira is scared, as someone has gotten close to him or he feels threatened enough to attack the police and L themselves. He's requesting, or demanding rather, that the search be called off. That's telling. Something frightened Kira and hit close to home." She assessed, mentally going over everything she'd read.

"Yeah, that's along the lines of what Ryuzaki thought." Mogi agreed.

"Then there's the need for a name and a face... how troublesome. The Lind L. Tailor broadcast showed us that possibility. The newly mentioned hypothesis is of people being killed by means other than heart attacks, which some of the prison deaths cover, but we've no way of knowing just exactly how those are committed."

"Ryuzaki hypothesized it might be a psychic power." Matsuda chimed in from across the room.

"If that's the case, they could be experiments on Kira's part, thus he'd be looking for the instantly publicized or recorded results. The identities of prison inmates are common knowledge and easily accessible online or offline. Kira has access to what the investigators or correction officers know, probably shortly after they know it. He could be getting his information from the prison system itself, rather than the police, since the prisoners deaths are clearly recorded there. Kira could be a prison guard or employee."

"That's not something we'd even thought of! Shikako might be onto something!" Matsuda said, suddenly cheerful. He jumped to his feet and ran to the computers to access the prison employees list.

"You probably won't find anything. Kira is most likely a student based on his schedule." Ryuzaki stated stiffly.

"So aside from them all dying during certain times of the day, correlating to when a child or teacher would be out of school, or during late night news broadcasts, there's nothing more concrete on when Kira is active. There are many occupations that correspond to that schedule. You don't think that could be a prison employee? How about an employee of someone connected to the correctional facility, like the company that does the cooking, or the laundry? What are you suggesting, are we looking for a psychic kid with a god complex or something?" She mused, throwing her ideas around and seeing quite plainly in Ryuzaki's uninterested expression that he didn't care for them in the slightest. She'd known a few of those psychic maniacs in her... past lifetimes, and wouldn't put it past this world since she was actually able to access her chakra to an extent. Could it be a chakra user? It wasn't completely unlikely but she couldn't and wouldn't explain that to them. She originally wanted to believe it was something more mundane but more and more she began to believe it really was a psychic at work.

"That was what I had wondered. A student with a psychic power to kill." Ryuzaki confirmed. He got odd looks from everyone in the room except Watari for that comment, but no one said a word. Shikako sighed. So she wasn't the only one that thought Kira having a psychic ability was plausible, but from the majority of the reactions to it, no one else bought it.

"So, I should look for employees that work for the kitchen company making the food for the inmates and guards? Uh, and that would be..." Matsuda rapidly started typing, the keys making clacking noises that broke the silence, distracting himself mid-thought.

"We'd need the names of those working in education in the facilities as well. Perhaps a teacher at the prisons." Soichiro suggested, taking a seat next to Matsuda and grabbing his own keyboard.

"It's not that much of a long shot, actually. Good suggestion." Aizawa said, giving Shikako that strange look once more. She couldn't figure out what the gleam in his eyes was for, but it probably had something to do with Ryuzaki's announcement that Shikako having joined them would mean she is under the most suspicion. Anything she suggested would be taken with a grain of salt. "I'll check the employees of the cleaning company that covers the prisons in this area."

"I'll get the names of the maintenance workers that have clearance at all the prisons." Mogi said, putting his then empty coffee cup down on a random stack of papers as there was no longer room on the table. He also took a computer and got to work.

Matsuda hummed as the printer near him started spitting out papers in fast succession. Before Shikako could offer her assistance, Ryuzaki turned to her, "Now, Shikako, are you going to have bias when investigating the comings and goings of your own sibling when the potential is that he might very well be the mass murderer Kira?"

" _He_ _wouldn't-_ " She stopped herself, cringing at her own loudly proclaimed words. She nodded in his direction, her tone quieting down some, "I guess I am." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her father smile.

"Please try to reign that in. We are going for objectivity in our research." The creepy smile was back tenfold, making his face almost seem like that of a clown's painted visage.

Narrowing her eyes, she stared at him, "Yeah, I see that." If that were true he'd be taking her suggestion more seriously rather than dismissing it outright. His negligence to comment or agree and his disinterested gaze was all the proof she needed that he was dead set in his own idea.

Matsuda gathered a handful of papers from the printer's tray when the printer finally quieted, but in his haste, he picked them up as the printer began to print once more. Soichiro had sent a file to print next, and when the machine let out a loud noise and began printing, it startled him. The young man dropped the entire stack to the floor. Hastily bending down to pick them up, he tried to get back to his feet but the printer tray smacked him on the head as he stood, causing him to yelp and drop them all over again. Shikako went over, kneeled down, and started gathering papers along side him to help him sort them up into something that resembled order. Once she had the numbered pages back to rights, she handed them back to Matsuda who thanked her with a small embarrassed smile.

"Thank you, Matsui, please bring those here. Shikako," Ryuzaki motioned with his spoon for attention once more, "Since we've gone this far and the cat is out of the bag we may as well maintain some order in our proceedings. I'm setting some ground rules for you and your family. The FBI agent that followed you during the initial investigation will be assigned to your family once more."

"Ryuzaki that is hardly necessary!" Soichiro denied, standing from his computer chair to face the black haired detective who was still seated with his ice cream.

"Actually it is more necessary now than it was then. Now that we have ascertained that certain files were accessed from your house, and one of your children has approached us, there is nothing I can do. There is too much coincidence to deny any potential involvement. It may very well have been simply fear or curiosity or a need to inform which brought your daughter here, but the fact remains it was a typical expected behavior. Getting information directly from the source of the investigation or becoming part of the investigation itself, that happens more often than people notice. We cannot in good conscience dismiss it outright.

"So, I have proposed to my associates that we approach this in another manner. Your children will be under surveillance, openly. That is the best I can offer you at this point in time. Since I have two FBI agents willing to help for the sake of the investigation, they will both be assigned to guard, follow, and investigate your children."

"Guard?" Shikako asked, not liking the way he had said that.

"Well, in the case that if you are Kira and try to make a run for it, they are to detain you. If you do attempt to run, you will be captured and locked into confinement, and needless to say, suspicion will rise. We can't be letting you get away since the two of you are the prime suspects at this point. We have to do things a bit unconventionally for this case. Of course, this means Light will have to be informed as he will suddenly gain a follower everywhere he goes. I have no way of knowing if you and Light haven't discussed the investigation among yourselves at home since the wiretaps and cameras have been removed. Regardless, it changes little." He said, talking even through bites of his ice cream.

"I understand," She couldn't deny it was something she probably should have expected, and it was far more lenient treatment than she would have received if suspected of something nefarious in a ninja village where she would have been locked away for certain. Or simply killed. He also just hinted that he thought the two siblings were working in conjunction as Kira, something he had never hinted at previously. It almost got her blood boiling. What was it about this guy that rubbed her the wrong way? "I guess I can live with that. It won't interfere with my school, work, or helping with the investigation, then." she conceded.

"Of course, with this set up you get to continue going to work and school, regardless of whether you help with the investigation. I've already obtained permission from the college for the agents to sit in on all of your classes as if they are auditing. Light's classes as well. About Light, in fact, I plan on letting him meet me." Ryuzaki paused to lick his spoon, then turned to see her reaction. He was distracted when Soichiro stepped forward.

"I supposed I can't argue with that, other than the fact that I know my children are innocent," injected Soichiro. "You are wanting to meet Light?"

"In for a penny..." Ryuzaki said, eating another strawberry. "We may as well be all-in at this point. I'm having agent Rei and agent Sora assist us in this. They should arrive here before you head home, Shikako. Sora will be assigned to follow Light. Shikako gets agent Rei. Agent Rei will be reporting directly to me," He explained while pointing to himself with this spoon, "Though agent Sora will be reporting to the American government aside from me, as he is still under their employ officially. Should they call him back, as he was and is on loan to Japan, I will assign someone else to the task. Since agent Rei is no longer an active duty agent, and technically is not really an agent at all anymore as she has retired, she is free to work for me full time regardless of the American government. She will not have to leave if they want their working agents back in their own country. She is reliable and does good work; I know because she has worked for me in the past. If you truly are not Kira, then you have nothing to fear from her, and can assume her to be an assistant of sorts. Well, my assistant, but regardless..." he trailed off, stabbing his spoon into the last ball of ice cream in his dish and letting it stand there on it's own.

 _'My babysitter. Great.'_ It could have been worse, with unfair suspicion on her head. She could still move about freely and investigate on her own. She at least, would know to actually look somewhere other than her own house for answers. Also, another agent to help her means another opinion if she finds something worthwhile, which isn't bad. She's used to working with partners, after all. She decided to try to think of this agent Rei as a teammate assigned to her, since she knew she herself wasn't a criminal. Everyone would acknowledge that truth eventually. Ryuzaki was right in saying the truth would out. She would make certain of it.

...

 **Author's Note:** Thank you for all the helpful reviews! I have been trying to improve my writing abilities, and when others catch things I didn't notice or didn't know in the first place, such reviews are enlightening!

On names, I chose Ray Penber and Naomi Misora's aliases based on each other's names. "Rei" is Misora, and "Sora "is Ray. (I do hope this is not confusing.) Now that it has been established as her alias it is to be assumed that during the investigation she is 'Shikako Nara' to everyone else. I have also referred to her by the name 'Shikako' when it is in relation to the character thinking of herself specifically or as a reference from a past life or if her abilities with chakra/ninja training are in use, without going into details on names from previous lives (like BoPeepWithNoSheep's idea 'Nukka' Sokka's twin sister from her AtlAB incarnation which I reference often) to try to prevent confusion. If it only really relates to this lifetime and how other characters perceive her in it, 'Michiko' has been used to describe her.

I now have a plot outline after much tinkering. I intend to keep with it as I am using writing this as an exercise to get into the habit of writing every day.

I chose third person perspective for writing this intentionally even though Shikako was originally written in first person. You get more of a bond with the character in first person perspective as you are writing them, and that's exactly why- she's not my character. I am also writing my own novel in first person and do not want to override my OC's personality by introducing a new voice. Third person allows me to associate with the story and characters in a more distanced way. Because Shikako is not my OC, I'm not going to assume to be in her head constantly, thus third person is appropriate.

If she is OOC it's my own fault for not being in touch enough with her character, whom I am assuming has evolved with the reincarnations as this story is placed in a future sense of the character's existence, though some OOCness may have derived purposefully from that, so I'll apologize in advance- if you see something I really truly messed up on in that regard, tell me! I have read so many SI OC fics that sometimes I might get important character details mixed up with others. As I get spare time I reread DOS, but it's a long one to go through so it is taking me a while. I never intended to write about Shikako when reading it through the first time, so might not have paid as much attention.

Sorry if updates on this fic are slow in the future. I'm going in for a major surgery, (don't ask,) so might be away from the computer a while. Also my original works take priority when I get inspiration to write them. I don't intend to begin any new projects while writing for this one, so I'm not currently taking writing prompts.

Apologies for the wall of text, I tried to shorten it some. -_-;


	6. Chapter 6: Introspection

Dreaming of Death Note: 6 - Introspection

(Edited on 11/12/2015 for continuity and minor errors.)

"What kind of world is this that people can be murdered from afar with a heart attack?" Michiko wasn't even certain if she had said it aloud as she lay on her bed, staring at her cheerfully painted yellow ceiling. She rolled over and looked about the room, eyes landing on the wall opposite, decorated with posters, book shelves, and a ringed dart board.

"Apparently it's the world we live in," came the voice of Agent Rei, from her chair seated at Michiko's desk. She had her back to her charge and was messing with Michiko's computer, doing something on a news website, not that the girl minded.

Agent Sora had been sent to introduce himself to Light when Light headed to a night class that evening. She wasn't sure how well her brother had taken it, but for now, he was being told that his accompanying guard was for his own protection due to the Kira case being so close to his family since his father was working on it and 'had been threatened'. She knew Light would see right through that explanation as if Kira had threatened their family, a guard would do them no good, but she hadn't been able to speak to him about it yet. Light would, of course, recognize agent Sora from the night at the Karaoke club.

The two women had been introduced before they headed to her home from the traveling Investigation Headquarters. It was a short but polite greeting, a quick bow where they both never let their dark eyes drop from each other, Agent Rei's more of a blue, while Michiko's were dark brown. The agent's hair was long, enviably straight, and pure black, the bangs hanging down in her eyes like they needed to be cut soon though they didn't appear to impede the woman's vision any. In contrast Michiko's hair was dark brown, long and wavy, though she also kept hers tied back and out of her face. Many people often said her sister Sayu looked just like her.

Rei wore a red turtleneck sweatshirt under a leather jacket with black jeans. She was currently seated with her legs crossed, one shiny black boot gleaming in the dim light of the lamp. Shikako thought she was very beautiful, and her skin was quite pale. She carried a tan purse on a strap over her left shoulder, and it looked heavy. It most likely had a weapon or two in it, even though guns aren't allowed in Japan- she wouldn't put it past L or his people to carry them despite the laws. Shikako was still wearing her orange and black work jacket, as it was the warmest thing she owned at the moment, and the weather was steadily turning colder with the start of December. She would have to go shopping for a proper cold weather coat soon.

As they'd first eyed each other in the doorway to Ryuzaki's hotel room, a small clap on the back from Matsuda, avidly saying 'they would all be good friends,' snapped the girl out of her inspection and made the agent wince. When they finally arrived at the Yagami household, it was empty but for the two of them. A comfortable silence had followed, far less awkward than she'd expected it to be, though they'd had their introductions and made some small talk on the way to her house. Agent Rei had been an FBI agent for several years in America, until she decided to quit her job and marry to start a family. She was working for L as a favor, now, and it had been her suggestion that Kira might kill with methods other than heart attacks. Shikako found it was easy to be around her, for some reason. She wasn't pushy, wasn't trying to interfere, she was just... there. Sure, they were watching each other's every move, but there was a familiarity there that nagged at the back of Shikako's thoughts.

' _Almost like... like... ah! Like having an Anbu nearby!_ ' That, she was quite used to. An ever watchful presence, with intent to weed out any potential threats, but always there to keep you safe, or in line. Whichever was most appropriate at the moment.

Allowing the woman to follow her was a good move, since she would have a witness to everything she does. She had nothing to feel or be guilty about in this lifetime, regardless of any suspicion on her head, so to the present she had a clean record. With Rei being a person following L's orders alone, Shikako knew since she was not a criminal she had nothing to worry about and Rei would see that eventually through inevitable proximity. It was odd how easy it was to shift her to _comrade_ instead of _opposition_ in her mind, when someone following your every move would ordinarily be confronted. Though it was similar to when Sai had first joined her team- she had known he was working for Danzo, but could be a good asset, and a true ally, given time. She was willing to take a chance with the agent. Besides, it wasn't like she couldn't pull one past her should she need to.

"If I were in L's position and had all the information at my fingertips," She mused aloud, "And it was carefully collected and stored information... If I knew that there was an info leak, and that this household was the only place that accessed it unauthorized... I would suspect me as well. I can't fault Ryuzaki for having suspicions considering those circumstances. But there's always more to it, there's always something unseen. There's something we're all missing. I just don't know what." She said, while resting her head on her hands.

Rei's response was to hum in agreement. The mouse clicked as she browsed the website. After checking a few more links, all of them in English, she said, "It's just evidence we haven't gathered yet, then."

Investigating Kira was the best way Shikako had of figuring out this strange new world's story, and every world seemed to have a story. The ones with the most information about Kira are the National Police Agency and the Kira Investigation Team. So she joined them. This was the best place to gain knowledge on the subject of the mass murderer. Everything L had was supposedly there for her to see. Having gone over the information now she wasn't much closer to an answer, which was hair-pullingly aggravating. Something was missing. Had Ryuzaki left something out? Her father claimed otherwise. Sure, she hadn't watched the security tapes of her own house, but was there reason to if her father had seen them, and Ryuzaki had watched them, and they turned up nothing? She wasn't sure. Just the fact that they exist was a grating source of irritation.

She decided that once she knows what she is dealing with, she will determine what to do about the phenomenon that is Kira. She didn't imagine that she wouldn't eventually have to have some form of confrontation with 'the big bad' in this world. Even in worlds where she had tried to avoid it previously, it was inevitable, so she decided to prepare for it appropriately. She could decide what to do about L and his suspicions of her and Light after that. Unless L became an immediate threat to herself and her family: Then he jumps up on the priority list. At this point, he is only a hindrance to her discovering the truth of this world, and finding a way to survive in it. If he is going to insist on investigating her as the potential Kira, he was only in her way... But maybe that was it? Had she already found it? She had no idea what story line was happening in this world and what scale she may have been tipping by interacting with anyone at all.

Was she interfering with something she knew nothing of? Absolutely.

Had she done so intently? Yes.

Was it for good or bad? She had no way of knowing. The ignorance was eating away at her with every unanswered question.

There were alternative routes to investigate, that she knew. But how to go about it without drawing more suspicion to herself and her family? She hadn't taken that much of a keen interest in it before the Kira incident began, and now she was sorely wishing she had. An opportunity had presented itself before... but that was a long time ago. It was still an open option, though.

Ryuzaki was currently so focused on Light, it couldn't be a coincidence. His blatant ignoring of her suggestions that the timing of the deaths could have been caused by a worker at the prison was telling enough- he was stubborn and clinging to his belief that he was right. It wasn't even the only possibility, just the one with the most likely connections to the police's carefully guarded information. No one is without their faults, and she believed she had found one of L's. She wasn't completely certain that her suggestion was accurate by any percentage, as L would put it, but it was a far sight better than believing her brother was the guilty party. That was out of the question. (She still got the feeling the detective was pulling those percentages and possibilities out of his ass. If she suspected as much, since there was no evidence to prove otherwise, it was possibly true.)

Would she have to seriously consider that her little brother might be a mass murderer? She shoved the morbid thought from her mind. There was no definite proof. Circumstantial evidence did not mean proof. What did L have? She made a mental checklist, ticking it off on a finger with each item she brought up:

 _Kira needs a face and a name to kill._ The broadcasts and the end results stated as much.

 _Kira kills with more than just heart attacks, or it's assumed he can_. The assumption agent Rei recently suggested, which made the investigation team scramble for more information on all deaths unaccounted for. This set their active investigating back by a few days, but was worth it to gather information they may have missed.

 _Cameras and wiretaps that showed nothing_ , she surmised. She hadn't seen them, but trusted her father's judgement, at least. Plus, she'd had a bit of a hand in that, she thought with a wry smirk.

 _A time period when criminals are being killed, pointing to a potential student._ Or teacher, or service type worker, or hell, who even knows? (L thought he did. That didn't make him right.) This was another of those unknowns that too little information would have them turning in circles over.

 _The area where they live being the place where Kira first responded to the Lind L. Tailor broadcast._ That gave her a clearer idea of where to look, but didn't help with her personal problems, or Light's innocence. It almost pointed a finger in her family's direction. She would have to work with it, as is.

 _Messages from dead inmates,_ some of them decoys Ryuzaki had shown her intentionally. Frightening prospect, to control someone before they die. Like a puppet. It reminded her of Pein, and a bit of Sasori, and she idly wondered what the control mechanism for that was. It wasn't chakra strings, or chakra rods. They would have been found, and the strings would be too damn far away to use remotely. It had to be something metaphysical she wasn't familiar with... This was what got her thinking she should investigate the supernatural angle. Some form of genjutsu?

Inconsequential, those last messages were, regardless. He was testing her answers. She couldn't give a rats ass what he thought she should be answering, and wasn't about to play his game by letting him get in her head. She'd spent enough time with Ibiki and the others working in T. & I. to know when someone thought they were playing with your mind. She may have been a bit blasé about it. So what if he believed the moon was made of cheese, that it belonged to him, and that she ate it all? That's his problem. She had decided that if he ever tries to physically make _his_ problem _her_ problem, as in any sort of corporal or capital punishment with or without the help of the law, (because she wouldn't put it past anyone to take the law into their own hands like a vigilante) then they'd fight.

She would win. She was absolutely positive of that.

All L had was his guns, his unknown number of minions at his beck and call, and probably taijutsu. She had the shadows on her side, and all that chakra afforded her, if she was careful. And what of Kira? Kira could kill with heart attacks, with metaphysical power. She could counter that with her chakra, by acting first, if only she could find out who he was before he found her...

If he tried anything against her family, she was certain she could make him disappear, whether 'he' meant 'L' or 'Kira' she would eliminate any threat to her family in this life. Killing him wasn't the only answer, and in a world of modern technology it might not even be the best thing to do as someone else would always pick up the mantle if she didn't erase her tracks completely, but it was something she had regrettably become accustomed to. What with how mysterious the detective was to begin with, no one would know a thing beyond the investigation team, if they even knew he vanished. She could work her way around them, she was certain. She couldn't put a worst case scenario out of her head just in case it did happen. She had to be prepared to deal with a threat. Though she might have to deal with Watari, as well. She didn't like thinking that way, but such is life.

 _Devil's advocate:_ And if Light was Kira? She would resolve that. It was her job, to help her brother stay sane. Kira was certainly insane, no doubt about that.

Kira was the bigger problem, but L had authority and had people that listened to him, and had power to hurt her family if she allowed it. She could use L to find Kira, and figure out the mystery or danger of this world. She was not going to just curl up and die, even if she wasn't in any immediate danger from Kira, he represented something; That kind of threat looming on the horizon was something she needed to investigate for her own sanity. It was the big bad, the unknown, the man behind the curtain, in this world. She intended to rip it away and see the cogs of this machine. That didn't mean that she had to personally get involved if it were safer not to, but since when did she ever take the safe route? She honestly hadn't intended to. Out of the frying pan and into the fire; if it weren't for L's suspicions leading to him invading her home she wouldn't have been involved in the first place, but she was going to use it and learn from it.

There was one other thing she couldn't forget to include, as much as she wanted to: _Her home network having accessed her father's files, while he was at work and not using them._ Now that one she couldn't dismiss as negligible and able to be ignored. What happened, cause and effect? She would have to confront Light and get answers herself. The suspicion on her brother made her angry as well, more so than the suspicion of herself. Just the fact that she would have to approach him with it was too much.

She knew she didn't have time to sit around and be angry at her circumstances. That was about as bad as Neji cursing his fate out of his own ignorance. Or Sasuke, from the story that she remembered Before, letting his love turn to rage. The thing about anger is the more time you have it to yourself the easier it becomes less of a raging fire and more of a simmering burn. It will eventually erupt, but until then, no one will see it under the surface until it is too late. Once you've learned to tamp it down and control it it becomes invisible, but out it will come, and sometimes when even you least expect it. She'd long ago learned to breathe in, breathe out, and accept the inevitable- that she would have to make the important changes herself.

Now how to go about it... that was the thing. And could she save her family in the process? L was a threat to her family so long as he let his suspicions hang over them unfairly. They were the only thing she had in this world, and she was not about to lose them.

Hopping to her feet, she crossed the room and grabbed the darts off the dart board on the far wall with one hand. She backed up to the opposite side of the room and began throwing them, one by one. She needed to settle down, if only physically. She felt like she'd been jogging, but she was only stressing herself out. Taking a deep breath, she released it slowly, and threw the darts. Each one landed right in a ring, one in the middle of each score zone's painted number, in a perfect horizontal line until they reached the center of the board and the last one hit precisely within the bulls-eye.

She went back to the board, grabbed the darts once more to throw them again. Repeating her breathing exercise, she centered her thoughts, letting a calm feeling wash over her for a moment. This time they also landed one in each ring, in a vertical line right on the numbers, the last one landing precisely in the bulls-eye once more.

Rei had turned to watch her game when she first heard the soft thumping of the darts hitting the board. "Wow, you're doing that all in a row on purpose? You're good at aiming."

Shikako smirked, her voice a bit breathy, but not from exhaustion, "Been playing with projectiles for years."

"I like that. I've been trained in target practice with knives, and I'm ok with those, but I'm not that precise with anything that's thrown like darts." Rei stated with a bit of awe in her voice. She eyed the large dart board on the wall up and down. "Though throwing knives are very different, much harder to be so precise as you have to account for the spin."

"I know. I'm good with those as well. I have a few, but hardly get them out. This dart board was intended for fine point darts, but I have a large wooden one in the back of the closet for the throwing knives. I had to start hiding them years ago when Sayu got inquisitive, and she always wanted to play with them." She hummed as she pulled the lead weighted darts from the board, throwing them almost absentmindedly as she went over the information she had at her hands to make plans for the immediate future.

While she was preoccupied with her thoughts, Rei perused the room and spied all of the cutouts of Naruto characters on the mirror. "You must really like mangas, huh?"

"Uh...Y-yeah." Shikako stuttered, actually missing when she threw a dart at the board in that same instant. It thunked soundly into the wall, then bounced off and rolled to the floor. She glared at it like it had committed an atrocious sin.

Ignoring her miss, Rei asked, "What's this one about? It all looks like it's the same artist's work." Rei mused while looking closely at an image of team three, making a funny face at Gai and Lee's character designs.

"Uh, ninjas." she turned her gaze to the board and refused to look away.

"Hm. They don't look like ninjas to me." Rei said dryly.

She didn't know quite why she was getting irritated by that comment, letting out a huff of indignation, but had to say, "Well, they are, and damn good ones at that. Sometimes things aren't always what they seem. If they looked like the stereotypical black and mask wearing stage ninjas they wouldn't blend into a crowd of civilians, would they?"

"Heh, all right." The agent raised her hands in a gesture of surrender, a sheepish grin on her face. "You seem to know more about that than I do." She looked back at the picture of Lee and Gai, as if to say, with a pointedly raised set of brows, ' _this does not blend in._ '

"Yeah, well, I read the book." Flustered and not knowing precisely why, she blushed, turned to her fallen dart and retrieved it, only to send it flying directly into the bulls-eye without actually looking. It wasn't the largest room, and she was as far back as she could get, but it was still an impressive throw for not seeing her target. This got an appreciative whistle from her guest.

"Ryuzaki told me your name was an altered version of one of the characters of the series, making his name feminine. He's the 'intelligent, but lazy one' he'd said. I just found that amusing."

Shikako closed her eyes slowly, seeing her long ago brother in her mind. He was a bit older in her memory, on a day when he was dressed casually in a white shirt with black pants, sitting reclined with arms cushioning his head, while staring up at the sky to watch the clouds pass him by with a tired but wistful smile on his lips. "To each his own. I... like the character, it was the first thing that came to mind."

"If you're really not Kira, aren't you afraid? You could die by joining the investigation. It's not safe for you." Rei said conversationally as she watched the girl playing darts with a sudden furious speed to her repetitive throws.

"So could you. The safest place in the world is where we can watch each other's backs. So, I have a rule. Rule number one: No dying." Shikako muttered, throwing the last of her darts once more. It stuck into the target with a firm thunk.

The woman nodded in appreciation, "No dying. Good rule."

Shikako went over all of the recent events, desperate to make sense of things as she retrieved them once more. She'd found it was much more difficult in this life to think things through as fast as she used to in her most memorable past life. It was probably the Nara genes enhancing her abilities after all as this wasn't the first life in which she'd encountered this difficulty. She pondered the issue at hand, trying to come up with a solution: Why did L think that Michiko or Light was Kira? Something just didn't match up in her thoughts...

.

.

...

(Previously)

She remembered when she had first noticed the cameras in her home, it was impossible not to. But who did they belong to? She'd had no idea at the time, and it had startled her. Not only was this a grave insult, but worse, it was an invasion of privacy from an unknown invader. This made any alert ninja go into a defensive mode. She took in every detail. How long had they been there? She would have noticed, right? And her father- he'd been in her room. There was that. So what was going on? He had to have some form of answer.

She'd gone into the bathroom, intent on taking a shower. She had to act normal so as not to tip off the person observing. They would notice if she just stopped taking care of her self. That didn't mean she had to make this easy on her spy. The 'Hidden in the Mist' jutsu was all she needed to make it appear that the camera was just too foggy to get a good view. It was the one and only time she had a valid excuse to use it, as in this life it was a chakra intensive one and required more water for some weird reason she hadn't fully figured out. Physics seemed to be a bit different here. She could even disguise the use of the jutsu behind the towel she was carrying into the bathroom when she went to use the shower. _('See, ma? No hand signs... visible.')_ She didn't have to fill the whole room with it either, only the areas she'd noticed the cameras. She had cast it earlier when her family had used the bath, the moment she realized there truly were cameras in every room.

' _Ninja, paranoid? Nah._ ' (Yes, absolutely.)

It wasn't perfect, and she had very bad control over the jutsu, it tended to fade a bit while she was soaking or not paying attention to it, as she took a rest after casting it. She felt like an academy student trying to learn a new jutsu she'd never done before. She had to cast it again when she got out of the bath. She didn't realize this might have been an issue when the rest of her family used it, as the weak mist she had made had faded fast and was most likely see through anyway. She had only cast it before they went in, each time, with the excuse of leaving them some clean towels. There was nothing she could do about that now. It made the air in the bath quite cold, but it provided some cover to retain a bit of modesty from the camera. Not that that was the thing she was worried most about. She was mature enough to handle a bit of nudity at this point.

There was also that residual disassociation with this new body, as if it wasn't really hers. She'd recalled feeling just such a thing the moment she'd first met the leering gaze of Jiraya, so long ago in another lifetime. It just... felt like he wasn't really looking at her. It did make things somewhat easier, to be able to disconnect from the embarrassment. She'd decided her soul was more permanent than any body she inhabited, having experienced quite a few of them. That very thought had made her pause and wonder if that was what Orochimaru felt, but she wasn't stealing this body from anyone, so it was a moot point.

Just the fact there was a camera was the dangerous part, and that was what worried her. There were surveillance cameras in every nook and cranny of the house. There was no excuse for using the jutsu, and no water to use it with, in her room when she changed clothes. Still, this was better than nothing, and it was good practice as maintaining this jutsu was a bit challenging in this lifetime. It was harder to get her chakra back and a slow recovery after a day of casting the hidden in the mist jutsu. She made sure to eat some high nutrition snacks to regain her chakra faster. She approached it like a training exercise and had pressed on. The thought that she would have to do it again the next day made her start planning, because she was not going to remain catering to some spy's whims. She was going to do something about it. Her first thought was to tell her father, in case this really was Kira. After that, if he knew nothing of it, there was someone else she wanted to interrogate.

The thing that was bothering her the most was in this life time she had no idea what the story line was, or even if there was one. She had suspicions, but nothing concrete. Seeing cameras just made her think it was something potentially very nasty. She had connected the dots, the moment it was announced on the news of the killer named Kira, his seemingly supernatural abilities, and the fact her father was investigating him. She instantly realized her father must be one of the main characters of this story, therefore this Kira must be one of the villainous equivalents. The universe tended to drop her in pointed positions, ready to interfere with the main story line. She had the sinking suspicion that Kira had found out who was investigating him, and had made a move. That meant her family was in danger. This Kira could be holding them hostage, and there wouldn't be a thing she could do about it without more information. If it were someone else, she would discover who.

She kicked herself, thinking she should have acted sooner. She had to know who Kira was and how to keep him from hurting her family. She had to help her father. If he weren't investigating Kira, she probably wouldn't have cared as much. Aside from her ninja abilities, information was key. Information was power. She needed enough to protect her precious people. It was time to start gathering.

This type of story probably wouldn't be cut and dry. The answer wouldn't be easy to find. (It never is.) She figured it would be someone she would have to learn about through her father's connections. She had at first asked around among her contacts at work and school but found nothing, just hoping the answer was already known and she'd missed it. Usually her little network of friends turned up some information on whatever gossipy topic of the day was interesting, but of Kira there was only speculation and concern. None of them had heard anything that she hadn't, unless you could count wild stories of Kira being an alien among one of them. That was a new one. With her experience, she couldn't instantly dismiss it either. There were others she was tempted to ask, but there was always a price for the asking... She would save that as a last resort.

But she had other problems more immediately apparent. One of which was the chills. The air around the house would occasionally take on a cold feeling, as if all the heat from the atmosphere around her had vanished. Not unlike when she changed the temperature with the hidden in the mist jutsu, but she wasn't actively casting it and there was no mist, and no chakra in the air. It happened the first time when Light sat down beside her in the living room, with Sayu across from him, as he helped her little sister with her math homework. Michiko had wanted to help as well, and chimed in a thought here and there to clarify some of Light's points to Sayu, but was constantly distracted by this strange feeling. A chill had run down her back, and she felt as if she were being observed. She checked the room carefully, and sometimes even thought she heard a deep bass voice chuckle. She heard this more than once, on several occasions. She thought she had to be imagining it. The TV and radio were off, the windows were closed and the heater was on, as it was starting to be December, so perhaps it had come from outside?

Sometimes she thought she could smell apples, though there were no apples in the house anywhere. Michiko has asked, during dinner one night, "Does someone have a new perfume that smells like apples?"

"Nope. No apples here. Mom?" Sayu said, speaking fast through a mouth full of hot mashed potatoes she was too eager to eat to allow to cool first. She stuck her tongue out, gasping from the heat, visibly regretting having tried to eat more than she could physically handle with a cringe on her face. She fanned her tongue off with her napkin comically. Light laughed at his sister's antics.

"Sorry, no," denied Sachiko, and there were no new bath or cleaning products scented like apples in the house either. "It's quite a mystery. I have been noticing that scent, now that you mention it. It shows up now and then," her mother said. When she talked about smelling it, she had the strangest look no her face, like something was truly bothering her but she couldn't figure out what. Light assured them it must be their imagination, then joked that girls smell strange things when it's ' _that time of the month._ ' Before their mother could reprimand him, this had earned him a face full of mashed potatoes and gravy, compliments of Michiko's good aim from over the table, much to Sayu's great amusement, followed by Sachiko's most stern of looks. (She didn't even have to clean any fly-away potatoes off the wall this time. One would think Light would have learned to dodge by then. It's not like she was being truly mean- She'd let them cool first!)

Shikako often felt this invading chill when passing her brother in the hallways, and heading for her bedroom. One day it had caught her off guard, and she ended up slumping against Sayu's bedroom door, a bit in shock at the sudden intrusive feeling of cold down her back. the intensity of it was strong, like never before. She felt her limbs go cold, and a freezing feeling went all the way through her chest, like she'd walked through a ghost. Sayu, hearing the thump, opened the door to check on her and a a result of leaning on it she had fallen to the floor on her knees.

"Sis!" Sayu screeched in worry. She held the door open wide, and looked up to Light for help. He had turned upon hearing his sister collapse, eyes wide. Rushing to her side, he checked her over to see if she was okay. Seeing nothing immediately wrong with her breathing, and finding that her temperature was not normal, the two of them had helped Michiko to her feet, and taken her straight to her bedroom. Dazed and woozy, she'd been made to go to bed early, citing that if she was "Dizzy enough to fall over, she should stay in bed."

They forced her to rest and drink some beef soup broth because Sayu was a worry-wart and insisted, "That's what you do when people are sick!" They didn't know what kind of illness had befallen her, and assumed it was some kind of cold.

Light had taken pity on her and brought her a new book to read, straight from a special trip to the bookstore, and she was; "Only allowed on her feet again when her temperature went back to normal," according to Light. The whole time her siblings were hovering, she felt like shivering. They piled five blankets on her, one of them a heating blanket, and at that point even Light was saying that it had to be something other than a cold when her hands were as chilled as ice, which was not typical.

It wasn't a cold. She knew that much. Fever and raised temperature? Yeah, not present. She was better by sunrise of the next morning, but hadn't slept a wink that night, though she was too exhausted to move. She'd finished reading the book in one go. At least she didn't have work or classes that day.

Another time she felt the strange presence was when she was sitting at the dinner table, passing the food dish when suddenly, as Light's hand took hold of the saucer, the chill set in. It happened to often to be dismissed. That in and of itself was unsettling.

A whisper in the dark, the odd feelings. It was creepy enough that if she noticed it it must be something significant but she couldn't pinpoint precisely what. Just another mystery.

.

.

...

(Present.)

A strange feeling around her brother... no. That's just pushing it. It wasn't chakra, wasn't in her normal range of sensory, and couldn't be connected to Ryuzaki's theory, right?

Even after meeting Ryuzaki, the chill feelings that occasionally assaulted her did not vanish. They only happened at home, though, never at the Team Headquarters, nor when she was with her friends and acquaintances, never while working, and not once at school. She couldn't bring them up to anyone, as it would at this point only increase suspicion on her or Light. A psychic power? Yes that would go over well with the person who believes she is using just that sort of thing to kill people. If L had any knowledge of just how much she knew of psychic powers, he'd be even more suspicious of her than he already was. She was not interested in drawing any further attention to herself. If she investigated the supernatural, it had to be covertly.

But with all of this, it had nothing to do with L. Of that she was certain. Well, or so she thought. She was beginning to question even that. And of Kira? Kira perhaps could have been spying on them in a more metaphysical way, she considered, long after meeting L. She couldn't put that past him. But how to find out the truth? How do you discover if a psychic is spying on you metaphysically? Her sensory ability was weak here, and it turned up no answers. She just didn't really have what it took, in the 'magical' sense.

She had once wondered if there were any other people in this world with abilities like hers, and had long since tried to find them. In her searching she'd found nothing quite like what she assumed Kira would be. Perhaps chakra did exist in this world but here most people were like Lee and didn't know even enough to try to reach for it? She couldn't be sure. If she could do it, it wasn't so out of place to believe that someone else had an ability and had honed it to perfection.

There was one way to find out. Throwing the last dart into the bulls-eye once more, she decided on a plan of action for the next day.

That evening they had visited momentarily with Light and Agent Sora, over an otherwise quiet dinner as Sayu had hidden in her room, not wanting food. The girl had cried all day, after hearing that her other friend had died in the hospital.

A dark look passed over her brother's features, and from the way he regarded the agents, he was definitely not happy about having someone follow his every move. Light had reacted with shock upon seeing agent Rei, and recognized her as the woman that had borrowed his phone outside of the police station before. Their mother tried to brighten the room with flowers and conversation, ending up with aborted attempts to talk to one another between the two agents, but they fell silent when they realized they had an audience and had almost said each other's names once or twice. They were clearly familiar with one another and agent Rei's name started with an "N", if Michiko heard it right. Her mother's attempts failed to lighten the atmosphere.

The smell of apples had lingered in the room over dinner, but no one else seemed to smell it this time, when Michiko mentioned it.

"It's about time to get some sleep." Michiko announced, turning to the closet to get out an unrolling sleeping mattress that Rei could use. Sora would be sleeping in Light's room. The only acknowledgement she got was a tired sounding yawn from the other woman.

Agent Rei's presence at her side constantly did complicate things, but it was in a good way. Shikako would have one good shot tomorrow, and she had to make it count if she was going to get answers. She'd been using her chakra a lot lately, and had gotten used to a routine of having to recharge and refuel for it. She had been practicing and preparing for this particular chakra hog for a while now, though having to use it in this manner was unexpected, but now it was going to come to use... She just had to time it right.

There was something she needed to ask someone...

.

.

...

 _ **Author's Note:**_ I wanted to add more but this is all I have written so far, and I figured I should post something while I can. I do have the plot outlined and it went through a major rewrite when I realized something I originally had written went against the rules of the death note. Fixed that just in time. Again, sorry if I'm slow about this one. This fic has a more serious tone than the others I've been writing, and the humorous ones are easier to just spew out on the spot so I probably will write those faster. Usually I just go where the keyboard takes me.

I'll occasionally have to write things that happened before chapter one, to elaborate or clarify, because chapter one started as just a ficlet on the forum which grew into this.

Also, it's important to note that in this story, Shikako is the only person that has been resurrected. She did not pass through into this world with anyone else from the Naruto-verse or the Avatar-verse though it is assumed she has previously lived lives there. So no, to the one that asked, Light and L are not reincarnated persons, sorry. Though that would have been interesting.

My computer's been threatening to die on me (the monitor keeps turning black for a second many times throughout the day and it randomly makes buzzing noises at intervals, and refuses to update... each time it goes black I wonder if it's going to light back up again.) So here's hoping it doesn't crap out on me since I'm broke and that would be devastating. Plus, that would suck since this thing is actually new but not new enough to take back and replace.

Also, I've noticed there's a mirror site reposting all of my stories and reviews I've personally written, as well as my bio. They already have 'The Misadventures of Mr. Cranberry' up, and when I posted that story I noticed the site was copying my stuff. I have nothing to do with that mirror site, and from what I hear if you go there it gives you massive pop-ups. It's strange, it doesn't copy everything from this site, just some people's stories and profiles. DOS Switch is up there, too. I would advise checking for viruses and malware if you've seen it. If you look any fics up with google, read where it takes you before you click on it!

 **Short Horror story** : My furnace died and _Winter Is Coming_. Thankfully I have a fireplace. Which only heats up to 5 feet in front of it. Speaking of which, time to add a log...


	7. Chapter 7: Acquaintances

Dreaming of Death Note: 7 - Acquaintances

A nine year old Michiko sat cross-legged on the grass near a pine tree. She had refused to play with the other kids, and so in boredom they left her to her silent musings. She had been sitting there, immobile, for what must have felt like hours to any other child but had really only been the duration of a long lunch break. She had eaten fast and made her way to the playground first to claim the corner for herself. So focused on her task, off in the semi-dark, sparsely tree shaded corner of the play ground, that she lost track of time and in her intense single-minded focus should have been paying better attention to her surroundings, though she knew she was alone there.

Tired, she reached once more with her chakra, the tiniest amount she could use infused in her shadow, and tried to make the pine cone move, roll, or even budge it over an inch. Up until this point, she'd managed to make it wiggle in place. Nudging it forward with a nervous upward spike of shadow, she lost control of the movement as it spun on its side, until it settled against the heel of her shoe. Groaning in frustration, she picked it up, placed it a foot away, and tried again. Hidden in her shadow, turned away from the playground, no one else saw what she was doing.

Or so she thought.

The window on the building far behind her darkened, as a man pulled the blinds down. From his angle, he couldn't possibly have seen the pine cone. But this man, he didn't need to. He didn't need his eyes to see her.

She had just turned nine when she started practicing with her shadow, at every available opportunity, to try to strengthen her slowly growing chakra ability. She got into the habit of doing it at school, at lunch, when she was supposed to be interacting with her peers over the next few months. Her teachers took notice that she was anti-social, when it came to those of her own age, and preferred to interact with those younger than herself, like Light and his friends. Truthfully she hadn't made many connections with her age-cohorts, other than as casual acquaintances, being moved up in the classes to be with kids older than her due to her higher intelligence. She had chosen to spend her free time teaching the younger kids to play games, as a chance to spend time with her brother when she wasn't absolutely alone, which concerned the adults around her.

But training time was different, and she always spent it alone.

One of the teachers at the elementary school, a very friendly man everyone knew as 'Dan' had taken a special interest in the quiet, introverted Michiko. Dan had been keeping an eye on her ever since she gained the attention of the employees at the school, as a gifted child. She was interesting because of her advanced intelligence, which garnered her much praise, but Dan saw something more. Dan always saw more. Dan would watch, and would see what she didn't want the world to notice. Even when she was hiding her chakra use, Dan somehow knew she was doing it. When she practiced, and had sensed that no other soul was close enough to see, Dan could still see her practicing with her shadows. He had been watching her all year, without her knowing. She was a puzzle he couldn't quite solve. He wanted to know how she did it.

Dan approached her that afternoon as the pine cone rolled on its side. That day he had shaken her view of the world, as at that point, she had firmly believed her ability was unique due to her reincarnated circumstances. She hadn't met any others like her, and while she had speculated at the possibility of other chakra users, she had yet not had any proof. Her family, friends, acquaintances, all led her to believe that supernatural powers do not exist. Somehow he had sensed her using chakra, and told her as much, though that was not what he had called it.

"Psychic powers, a 'magic ability', or so it appears," he had said, as he came up behind her on silent feet as she practiced with her pine cone, "They set us apart from the rest of the world, don't they, Michiko?" The pine cone stilled, and the little girl's back froze as she leaned over the grass, her shadow having warped at an angle that physics would say was impossible with the bending of light. Dan saw this, clearly, and laughed at her expression. "Nothing to be afraid of. You and I have that in common." Defensively, Shikako got to her feet and backed away, though her shadow inched closer to the man, threateningly. He didn't seem to notice. His eyes were on her, not the ground, though he knew what she had been doing. The man stood silent, his shoulder length hair blowing in the gentle wind, sunlight sparkling in tangled blonde curls. He was tall, a foreigner, looking distinctly European and speaking with a slight accent though she couldn't quite place from where.

She was concerned for a fraction of a second, that he would try to fight her, and in her current state she could barely nudge a pine cone. She knew she wouldn't be able to use Shadow Possession properly at this stage of her retraining. Warily, Michiko had gone quiet, eyes observing everything rapidly but stance intentionally passive, and he left her alone with a parting smile.

For several days after he spoke to her of her 'magic ability' she had feigned an illness to get out of going to school, but couldn't hold off on attending forever. When she finally was sent back to school with a clean bill of health, Dan had taken over her class. He was her new homeroom teacher, Mr. Onni Dan Laine. Her original homeroom teacher had mysteriously retired out of the blue. There was no avoiding him. He ignored her for a month, acting as if nothing had happened between them until she was tolerant of his presence, but still highly aware of his every move. During that time, she didn't have an opportunity to approach him alone.

Dan was the only person she knew of that had knowledge that Shikako could use chakra, and as far as she could tell, he had kept her secret. He made it known to her that he believed she was a gifted psychic, kept watch over her, and wanted her to work for him. He worked at the school on most days back then, but had since moved on to another occupation long after she had changed schools. He didn't work there just because of her, but had noticed her while he was working there.

She had refused years ago, even angrily confronting him that he would try to hire a nine year old. Who would even do that? It made her remember how jarring the militaristic mindset of Konoha had been at first, indoctrinating children into the system. Her confronting him amused him greatly. He asked again years later, when she was a teenager. Most of the time she wanted to say no, and readily did. But for a very rare few times when he wanted something important done, just to stay on his good side, she agreed to a small job; however, it was never anything she'd think of as more than a C rank mission in ninja terms.

Besides, sometimes, she got bored. It was actually entertaining to pull off something like a mission in this world, even all alone.

She didn't need someone letting out her secret, but he had just as much motivation to keep it for himself if she worked with him. Back then, she didn't want any trouble, and didn't know how far his network of psychics reached, or just how powerful they really were. And he made certain she knew he had a large network as he'd invited her to join.

At first she thought this was the 'story line' of this world, and thought it akin to something like _The X-Men_ , but when nothing more happened other than him approaching her regularly with 'a job offer,' she couldn't be so certain. It could just be a quirk of this world, like Bending was in the Avatar's world. Bending itself, and people who could use it, were not the only aspect to the story. It was so much more than that. _'Look underneath the underneath, right?_ ' She did her investigating, and learned all about Dan that she could find, and a bit about the people he employed. He didn't seem to be a danger to her and her family, or to anyone, really. He just curiously knew things he shouldn't have known about her. Benevolent? Perhaps.

She hadn't thought about him in years, he was easy to dismiss once she decided he wasn't actually a threat. She'd had no reason to consider him, content to be mundane in her secrecy and ignore the other 'psychics' if it meant no crisis involving the end of the world would land on her doorstep. No Firelord intent on ruling the nations, no world leader targeting her as his most rivaled foe in any way shape or form. She had her chakra use, and there were a few psychics in this world using something other than chakra, but just as otherworldly. Not much different than knowing there were ninjas at work in her old world.

Having learned from Dan that each psychic ability is unique to the individual and like a kekkei genkai they could not be learned, shared, or duplicated, she wondered if her chakra use really did count as a unique psychic ability, or whether she could pass it off as such? It didn't really matter as she had no interest in getting involved in anything. She just wanted to be happy, this time around. Kira was interfering with that happiness, and she wasn't going to let some psychic murderer bully her or her family. Whether she asked to be here or not, or had some divine mission, this was still her life and her choice.

Dan always spoke as if he knew everything, if it concerned him. If Kira was a psychic in this world, Shikako was pretty certain that Dan would know him or of him. If not, then Dan would know how to find him.

What concerned her more was the possibility that he already had.

She intended to ask, without anyone noticing, of course. She was a ninja, that was well within her power.

.

.

...

"Any change?" Michiko asked as she and Rei exited her room into the hallway between her and her siblings' bedrooms. She asked this of Agent Sora as Light stepped out of Sayu's bedroom, closing the door gently behind himself.

Before Sora could answer, Light beat him to it. "She refuses to leave her room," Light announced softly, blinking slowly at the hallway's occupants as if getting used to the brighter light. It must have been dark in Sayu's room with her lights off and blinds closed. Sayu had hidden in her room upon hearing that her other injured friend had died, and wouldn't come out for anything other than to head to the bathroom. She said she felt sick.

"She wouldn't eat breakfast today." Sora stated dismally, eyes downcast. He had been quiet that night, after first arriving at the Yagami household. He spent the evening not talking much other than to greet her family and explain to their mother why he and Agent Rei had to stay with them, saying that the investigation team had assigned her family bodyguards to look after them. Sachiko hadn't taken it too well, seeing the 'bodyguards' as a sign that the investigation was escalating in the danger scale. Her anxiety was apparent all through dinner as her hands shook while she was cooking. Michiko had helped, taking some of the strain off of her, and even Agent Rei chipped in, though they had made Sora and Light do the dishes. It seemed that their presence had frightened her mother, rather than reassuring her, but their calm interactions through the evening went a ways towards helping her to accept the situation.

Michiko was worried when she noticed Sayu decided to skip dinner. Her mother took a plate up to her, though the girl had left it untouched. "You can't lead a horse to water and always expect it to drink." Rei had said knowingly.

Michiko still wasn't sure how much Light knew about the Agent's situation, or whether the story Agent Sora told him was the one he was to believe or not, so she simply didn't say anything that could tell him otherwise and allowed the Agents to do all the talking and explaining their reasoning for being there. Sayu hadn't stayed downstairs long enough to even hear why there were other people there, as Michiko had broken the news to her shortly after they arrived at her home. It seemed Light had not yet met L, though Ryuzaki had talked about meeting him soon.

"Sayu's taking it really hard." Rei observed.

"No wonder, both of her friends died, one after the other." Sora nodded towards the closed door of Sayu's bedroom.

"Poor thing." Agent Rei sighed. She crossed her arms over her red knit sweater.

"All we can do is be supportive, and make sure she does eat later." Light said with a shake of his head.

Sora nervously tucked at the neck of his turtleneck, eyes weaving between Rei and Light and back again. Michiko could tell they knew each other, they seemed to communicate well without speaking. Something about the situation really made Agent Sora anxious, but Michiko couldn't tell why the man was a bundle of nerves. Agent Rei almost seemed stoically calm. Or was it just seeing Agent Rei working in the same place as him that got him on edge? The night before, he had regularly given the woman disapproving looks, which she pointedly ignored until the man looked away, seemingly ashamed. Light also noticed their stunted interactions, and occasionally tossed an exasperated glance in their direction.

"I don't want her to be alone for too long. It's not healthy." Michiko stared at the closed door as if it held the answer to questions unasked. She felt a cold shiver down her back once more, but tried her best to ignore it. She looked to her brother walking towards her, who shook his head in response. He gave her shoulder a slight squeeze of reassurance, giving her a half hug as they met in the hallway.

"Mom will be here, don't worry. She'll look after her," her brother reassured her. Rei looked to Sora, her face impassive, staring into his eyes as if to communicate something in silence. Sora looked back, his face also carefully blank, and the awkwardness between them returned. _'They seem to be uncomfortable with any demonstrations of familial love. Hm. Interesting. They really are either 'together' or are related.'_ she observed.

"Is she taking time off from school?" Michiko asked, returning his half hug with a longer lasting, full arms-around-the-chest one, smelling the traces of his scented shampoo. She always hugged more than he did and he tolerated that as any brother would, with a huff of irritation that wasn't really real but just for show. She pulled back and he smiled down at her sadly with a nod.

"Don't younger students usually have a winter break, so she's leaving school early?" Rei wondered. The woman looked away from her staring match with Sora to glance at Light.

"Yeah, it's for the best. We can keep her up to date on school work. I'll lend a hand with that." said Light. He tapped the textbook he held in his arm to emphasize the point. "Any sister of ours will _not_ be falling behind."

Michiko asked, "You have classes today?"

Light nodded, "Yeah, only two of them though. I'll have to save a seat for Agent Sora as well, from now on. I guess class will be more interesting. You're not too bad looking, so you'll have the girls hanging off of you in no time. Might be a good distraction so I can study!" Light tried to joke. At this, Sora and Rei both straightened their backs, and looked firmly in each other's directions. _'Yep, even Light noticed. They're dating, at the very least... Wait, didn't Ryuzaki say that the FBI Agent's fiance was the one that came to him with information about Kira killing in other ways? That must be Agent Rei.'_

She eyed the woman, deciding she must be smarter than she lets on to come to that realization about Kira's killing methods so fast after only hearing about one interaction with a suspect. She acted prim, proper, and demure, in a very professional sense. Thinking back on her interactions with Agent Sora, she decided that must be the case. _'Yeah, that's it all right. He's annoyed that his fiance is working this case, too! Heh, no wonder it's awkward. She had retired, according to Ryuzaki.'_

Then again, the premise that Kira kills with more than heart attacks was the very major thing that made L look at Light closely in the first place, after the incident at the Karaoke club which gave Agent Rei the idea. Taking it seriously as a possibility directly goes against Shikako's denial that her brother was even involved... now that in and of itself was troublesome. Now that it had been presented, it couldn't outright be dismissed, even if it weren't truly a possibility for the actual Kira. They couldn't write it off without proof. (It was just another mark against him, unfortunately, and just the fact that she wanted to dismiss it struck her suddenly because _this is her brother involved._ It made her see her own bias.)

Sora answered Light's teasing comment slowly, eyes never leaving the other agent's unreadable face, "That... won't be happening."

"Oh, all right. But I have to warn you, you're not usually my type." Light said with a sincere looking smile directed at Sora, whose face turned crimson so fast Michiko wondered if he was going to pass out. Rei just stood there with her mouth firmly in a tight line, to all appearances attempting not to say a word. No one could tell if she was amused or angry at Light's sudden innuendo. Michiko smacked Light softly on the arm, knowing he was just messing with them since he, too, realized they were dating or more. This made him snicker to himself under his breath.

"You have work? I guess Agent Rei is going with you?" Light asked his sister, as he put his books in a backpack he'd left sitting on the floor in the hallway, then slung it over his shoulder as if the previous joking conversation never even happened, even if it did manage to brighten the somber mood a bit.

"Ah, yeah." Michiko agreed.

"Sorry, but it's a necessity. And please, it's just Sora and Rei. I don't need you saying 'Agent' in public." Sora said, stuffing his hands into his pants pockets as Agent Rei nodded in agreement, her face finally relaxing. His face was still red as he looked away. When he blushed, he blushed well, and it reminded Shikako of Hinata's habit of blushing every time Naruto got near.

"I understand. It was explained to me by my father over the phone. To anyone else at the school, you're just another student. Better bring a notebook to blend in or you'll get odd looks." Light said the last part in a teasing voice while eyeing Agent Sora humorously, trying to lighten the mood further.

"Ah, good idea." Sora smiled with just his eyes, almost looking like a grinning cat with a pink tinge to his cheeks. "I'll just borrow one of yours...You have an extra in your desk, right?" Sora turned to enter Light's room.

Light moved quickly to the door, before the agent could grip the handle, and said, "Here, I've got one you can use. It will even have some notes from this class in it, that should look authentic. I can just start a new one this class period!" Light hastily moved into his room to grab the notebook he'd been using for the class before off of his desk. Michiko knew he didn't really need the notebooks anymore, as the simple act of listening to a lecture or writing it out himself helped him to remember the information easily. Even if he wrote everything down he would rarely need to read it again later unless he needed to fact-check something.

As the two of them exited the room, notebooks on philosophy in hand, (apparently every college always requires electives, and that's always the class with spare room,) Light gave Sora a walk-through of the class topics so far, so that if anyone talked to him while he was there he would sound like he belonged. Or so that was the intent.

Agent Sora had a lost look on his face, and didn't seem to be following anything that Light was ardently explaining to him. Apparently this class often included a debate in which the students had to partake and choose a side, then explain their reasoning soundly and thoroughly in a specific format, not to convince others, but to explain why they think this way. Sora didn't seem to know what to do, as it clearly had never been a subject of interest for him. The older man occasionally glanced at the others in the hallway as if asking for assistance. Agent Rei just smirked at him and turned her back, heading towards the end of the hall with a small backwards wave.

As Michiko headed towards the staircase, close on Agent Rei's heels, she heard what she imagined to be a snicker behind her and smelled something like rotting apples lingering in the hall. If she were on the ground floor she would think the scent was coming up from the crawlspace under the house... but on the second floor? The odd smell was beginning to get on her nerves.

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 **Author's Note:** This took way too long to write, for various reasons, though not much happened so far. I ended up breaking it into two chapters as it had formatting problems, and the other one is needing to be edited for chronological order, with the other half needing written later. I went back today and edited and updated chapter 1 to fix continuity errors. Hopefully it now addresses some of the problems reviewers mentioned, thank you for the heads up!

I posted a few new fics and chapters that just begged to be written since every time I sat down to write for this something else came out instead yesterday. XD

And thank you for the helpful reviews! I appreciate your feedback and it helps me to improve.

Also, if something I wrote in a new chapter contradicted an old one, point it out to me please! I'll be sure to fix it. I tried to make certain to follow what I had before, and only changed what absolutely had to change. I combed through it to see if I missed something since this story line evolved on me after I had posted the first parts and finally decided on a specific plot.


	8. Chapter 8: Conditions

Dreaming of Death Note: 8 - Conditions

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 **Disclaimer:** Characters from Naruto, Death Note, and Avatar belong to their respective famous owners, Shikako belongs to Silver Queen. Dan and his followers are my Original Characters and I'm using them here for my own amusement.

 **Author's Note:** The holiday gatherings, and unexpected family issues, means that I had toddlers aplenty rambunctiously getting into everything that isn't kid proofed (i.e. every door, cupboard, and box in the house) and tiny ones wreaking the unique hell that is the terrible two's on my living space. This, while cousins, siblings and relatives I didn't even know about, neighbors and friends of friends all showed up and got into my work space. Horrible for getting anything done. Equally impossible for getting rid of migraines. Or finding my thumb drive. (That was kinda important.)

Then I got a cold on top of it all. I'm still a bit out of it and just plain tired. My throat, chest and nose, are on fire. I blame them. (That's unfair, I know.) I blame them all. (I am so not caring.) Also it snowed, and I hate the cold. (That must be their fault too.) I've been pretty much asleep for a few days.

SO- yeah.

This is all I've got written at the moment. If I polish this chapter any more then I'm just playing with it.

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Dreaming of Death Note 8: Conditions

Dan kept to himself, living on the thirteenth floor of an apartment building which he owned under a false name. No one was allowed in or out of this building past the first floor without his permission, an explicit invitation, at his whim. Only a few trusted employees held the keys to the elevator and work areas, and the card keys that allowed access to the individual lower floors were assigned to specific tenants. Dan himself carried the keys for floors above thirteen, with a handful of employees under his strict supervision. There were thirty above-ground floors if Shikako counted right, as she gazed upwards through the darkness at the tall building, counting sets of windows and balconies. She knew there were at least four floors below ground according to the elevator buttons inside.

Shikako was wearing a newly purchased dark blue winter-welcome coat to ward off the chill of the night and pants made of sturdy, thick material, also a deep blue in color- the better to blend with the surroundings, since she didn't want to stand out in the dark. She channeled her chakra into her feet and began the climb, running up the smooth stone wall to find the floor she needed. She had chosen the side of the building most encased in shadow, where she would less likely be seen. There were no cameras pointed in this direction, either.

She was gifted a set of keys to the third floor, and use of an apartment there any time she wished. Dan had said, as he handed her the keys after school one day when she was only nine years old, "It's yours to use, Michiko. A home away from home whether you agree to work for me or not. I want to make sure you are safe." Wary of his offer, she had avoided it for years.

 _'He just wants to always know where I am... Then again, he always seems to know regardless.'_ she had thought, with an annoyed look on her face.

She was curious but cautious. She went there eventually as part of an experiment to see what Dan would do. Even her own family assumed she was at home asleep at the time, as she had gone there in the dead of night. She spent a few nights there over the course of the years. She never told anyone when she was going to spend the night there, even years after being given a key. It was always kept clean whenever she arrived, even if the apartment had been vacant for a year, with a new newspaper of that day placed in the middle of the kitchen aisle counter top, and fresh food in the fridge, as if someone was saying ' _I knew you were coming today'._ It was a subtle reminder of Dan's abilities.

Some time later, the keys had evolved from a key chain with metal keys on it to a key chain with tiny and razor thin, digitally encoded cards as technology upgraded for better protection. Hers looked like a set of charms, with what appeared to be crystalline decorative covers on them. They could easily be mistaken for jewelry at first glance.

Dan had sent someone to meet her then. She was well into her teens when the locks changed, and the person that was sent to her was about her age, physically. It was a girl, with very light brown hair, blue eyes, and the most serious expression on her face. She wore all black that day, though it had been hot out with the unforgiving sun shining down relentlessly on everyone's heads. She had a silver choker, rings and bracelets adorning both arms and hands, and her own set of keys was visible as a charm bracelet on her left wrist.

Michiko had seen this girl twice before, on the first floor of the building Dan owned, always in black, and sitting behind a desk with a book in front of her nose, ignoring the world. This girl was certainly another of the gifted psychics Dan was always praising, unless she was simply working in the building, but if so, why hire a teenager to watch the front desk?

The girl had walked up to Michiko outside of her school, handed her the keys, and said they were, "From Onni. The locks have been upgraded."

Taking them, she inspected them closely, "Uh... thanks. What should I do with the old keys? Is he wanting them back?"

"Turn them into wind chimes? Crush them on a train track? Sell them on E-Bay? Feed them to your dog? I don't care." She turned to walk away, waving as she went, heading into the bright sunlight.

Michiko squinted as she watched her go, then called out, "Ah- alright. What's your name?"

"Wendy." That was the last thing Wendy said to her that day, without even looking back.

She had only seen Wendy from a distance after that, whenever she passed the building during the day. Strangely enough, the girl was also awake all night. She had seen her there in the same spot every day she passed by the first floor entrance and looked through the glass door, forever ignored by the other girl. She was there absolutely every time Michiko was there. She wondered just what kind of psychic power the girl possessed. She had never asked.

Even tonight she had glimpsed the girl at the desk as she arrived at the building, her face hidden behind a thick book once more, looking much older and more mature.

Shikako climbed up the side of the building, carefully measuring her chakra with every step so as not to loose her hold on the slick wall. When she arrived at her personal balcony on the third floor, she stopped to rest for a moment. She needed to get some of her chakra back, if she wanted to be in better condition upon reaching Dan's personal floor. Three floors up hadn't tired her too bad, but she was already too low on chakra for her liking. She never chanced greeting him with less than a usable amount of her chakra reserves, and sneaking off had required she use a substantial amount of chakra for this world. It seemed her reserves were even lower than they had been in the Naruto-verse, even after trying to build up her chakra for years. She would just have to make do, and in the back of her mind she didn't like it, but she did get the feeling that Dan wasn't really dangerous, just perceptive, though she didn't categorize him as harmless.

She reached the balcony door and got out her small slender card keys, which she'd removed from the key chain to instead keep on a necklace splayed out with beads like odd charms, each key no larger than half the length of her thumb. She unlocked the door and stepped inside. She knew this would alert the building security to the fact she had entered through the balcony door. She didn't usually use them to get in, she never needed them. She did this intentionally tonight.

She stepped into the darkness of the room and flipped a light switch, illuminating the living room by a subdued feeling set of lamps with ceiling oriented lighting. She wondered if this light scheme was intentional, as it minimized the shadows present in the majority of the room, with the light fixtures pointed toward the ceiling making most of the shadows hit the walls rather than the floor, and move upwards. Yes, that had to have been intentional. It was not the optimal place for her to use her shadows. It was almost like someone was playing with her or saying she didn't need to do that here.

Yet again, there was new night clothing in her size set out on her bed if she wanted to use it, and food freshly stocked in the fridge and cupboards. There was a magazine and a newspaper purchased and dated for today, setting on the kitchen counter. Upon closer inspection, she realized the magazine was a Shounen Jump. This made her pause in her assessment of the room. It was open to a page- the beginning of the Naruto chapter in the magazine. A full color image of Naruto with that cheeky smile of his stared out at her from the paper. The message was loud and clear. The hairs on the back of her neck stood to attention, seeing that presented so obviously.

The message was clear, _he knew_. But how?

Just the fact that this was going on almost made her think that Dan might have been the one to place cameras in her home, but logic told her otherwise. Dan didn't need cameras to spy on her. He had never used them before. He knew what she was doing, without such technological necessities. That was how he had noticed her abilities in the first place. He always knew what 'the gifted children' were doing, like a chakra sensor knowing when you used a jutsu because they felt your chakra flare even minutely, only on a different scale. She felt that he was playing the part of the all knowing and benevolent benefactor. She knew better than to simply trust him. Even Sarutobi had seemed like a kindly old man, when in actuality he could be a ruthless warrior, and a leader of armies. She couldn't take anyone's harmlessness at face value.

Either way, the food he'd provided her with had never (that she had known of) been poisoned, but she was careful of it all the same, and left it untouched today. It was also a statement on her part.

She brought out some energy bars from her backpack and munched on them while waiting to get her chakra back. One good thing about this world was the fast recovery rate, considering that her chakra gets used up rather quickly, it also recovers fast so long as she eats and rests properly. She hadn't been doing much of that on the bike ride over.

She sat on the long, curved white couch in the middle of the spacious living room, which was quite unusual for Japan and it almost made her feel guilty for never really using it but leaving it empty all year long. This place was really a mansion in comparison to most apartments. She stared out the window at the city lights that intermittently twinkled and let off steady glows in the darkness. Car headlights flickered in neat rows between tall, tall buildings. It was already after midnight but the city was as awake now as it was during the daylight hours.

She had a bad feeling after having left, like there was something she was missing. She hoped the genjutsu she had placed on Rei a few hours ago would be enough to hold her for the night. It had required all of her concentration to use it. Anything that influenced a body other than her own was chakra intensive to the extreme. The woman was already asleep when Shikako placed the genjutsu on her, and she had gone for something that would seem to be a pleasant but long lasting dream. (At least that was what she was aiming for.) As a result, her chakra wasn't at its peak after the genjutsu and having just used enough to climb a short distance up the building, though she felt it worth the use of her limited resources. She didn't want anyone outside to see her coming in, tonight, but wanted it known that she was here by those that mattered. With any luck, he would come to her if she waited, though he never had before. She supposed that was wishful thinking. She had more climbing to do if she wanted to meet Dan on the thirteenth floor.

She turned back to the balcony when a chime sounded throughout the room. She didn't know what was making the noise, as she'd never heard it before. Then came a knock on the door. _'Oh. Well, that makes this easier.'_

Surprised, and a bit pleased that the key had gotten attention that fast, she stepped over to the door and opened it a fraction. She was expecting a messenger, or someone to check on the room. What she got was Dan's smiling face greeting her on the other side.

"Michiko, it's good to see you home!" he said in a jovial tone. He cut to the chase, "I'd like to have a talk with you, if that's all right?" She could see his toothy smile in the dark. His teeth weren't sharp, but he still had the air of a predator around him, cool and calm.

"You're right on time, then. I do have some time to chat." She said, equally as cool, then shrugged as if she hadn't intended to do just that, shoving the door open the rest of the way. Turning back into the room, she invited him in to sit on one side of the curved couch, then took the seat directly across from him on its opposite end with the tall lamp situated behind the couch between them.

He settled on the couch, leg's crossed. His black slacks had silver threads interwoven in them, reflecting a surprising amount of light in the dim room. His white coat also had silver threads woven into it, and his thin gloves, which he peeled off slowly as he eyed her up and down, were made of nothing but these decorative threads. "You've grown up well, little Michiko."

She almost glared at him, checked herself, then gave him a fake smile, "Uh, thanks, I guess."

"Let's get to the point then. I know you don't like to waste your time. You want something, that is why you are here. I have that something. I have also set up something for you, in which you can acquire the knowledge you seek! It can be like a game. You play your part, my people will play theirs, then you get what you want to know."

"I don't have time for games." She said, crossing her arms over her coat. "I figured asking you was the fastest way to get answers." She tried to aim that as a compliment, to see if he would bite.

"It is, it is. When I want to give them. Then consider it a reward for a job well done. And I know you will do it well. I always know, shadow child." He winked at her playfully as he put his gloves away in a pocket of his coat. Reaching into the other side of the coat, he pulled a white envelope out and surrendered it to her, tossing it on the glass coffee table between them. He was clearly not worried about getting his fingerprints on anything he gave her.

She eyed it carefully as she reached to pick it up, though he held up a hand to stop her, saying, "This is your task. I will give you the answers you seek as I deem appropriate to the situation, if you complete the task. If I'm not satisfied with the result, you won't be either," his tone changed, sounding like an amused warning. He lowered his hand, and smiled serenely. She scooped the envelope up and inspected it; sealed, plain, blank. There was a folded paper inside.

"So if I don't do this the way you want, you won't tell me everything? Great. You're always so intentionally vague. Say I do agree to this, how do you get the answer to me?" she asked, sliding a fingernail under the seal of the envelop. "Should I just show up here later?"

"No, I'm a very busy man and will be out of the country later, this morning if all goes well. Business, you see. You will make a delivery to a specific location, throughout your work day. Nothing too strange. Accept the 'tip' you're given tomorrow. And yes, I expect you to complete this task tonight, as it is rather time sensitive. The reward will be given to you at work tomorrow. I know it's not your company's policy, but the little yellow envelope will be your payment. A foreigner wouldn't think about tipping being rude here, after all, as she's most likely used to it in America, wouldn't you think? And if she notices, who cares? It's not the money you're after, it's the words written on it."

"I see. And by foreigner, you mean...?" she leaned forward, elbows resting on her knees. Her shadow pooled under the table between them, always within easy reach of him. Even being this close, she wasn't entirely comfortable near this man. There was just something far too strange about him, and the longer she spent around him the more she realized he was giving off a strange energy, not unlike chakra, but still otherworldly. She was hesitant to think in this moment that he almost reminded her of Gelel. In reverse, she wondered what her chakra felt like to him.

"Naomi Misora, though of Japanese descent, is American. Yes, yes, I know all about your shadow that L has assigned you. Heh, don't think I don't know, dear Michiko. She's a retired FBI agent, and soon to be married to your brother's shadow, Raye Penber, at that." he settled back into the cushion more comfortably, resting his hands on his crossed legs. The man seemed to enjoy showing off that he knew things he shouldn't know, almost like he felt he needed to prove himself, unless it would benefit him to hold his tongue. She'd seen over the years that a few pointed questions got her answers she didn't have to pay for.

 _'So her name does start with 'N', I thought so. And that explains the nicknames.'_ This was enough for her to believe what he was saying was at least somewhat accurate, based on her own observations. She could look them up later, she supposed.

"You know about them."

He nodded his head, laughing, "Of course. L believes you are 'Kira'. Absurd, I know. I keep tabs on him, he's an interesting character. These are interesting times, indeed."

He knew she was coming, and had this set up ahead of time. He knew she would agree. He had the answers, and it was a simple matter of finishing a task he assigned and having them handed over to her. Really, what could be more simple? She would know whether Light was Kira, by the end of this. (She knew he wasn't.) Dan had never yet provided her with false information, but he could give her a nudge in the right direction, for finding proof to use to officially clear their names, if nothing else. She didn't know where in the world to look, but he did.

"Do you know who Kira is? You can tell me that, and what Kira is using to kill people, and how? If you tell me, I'll complete the mission for you." She said, having not even seen what it was yet. The white envelope was held between two fingers, twirling back and forth idly, as she gazed at the man across from her. She had broken the seal but had yet to read the contents.

"Mission, you call it? Always so formal. And that... would be wrong. Don't try to pixie out of our bargain, here. I need this done _first_ , sweetheart. Besides, I've organized it so it's a simple matter for you to get it all done in one go."

She sighed, "Don't call me that. And, once I do it, you'll tell me what I want to know."

"Well, I'll give you clues to his identity- if you get me what I want. Outright telling you is not amusing at all. And you're right, but being vague is fun. This is too much fun, otherwise I'd grow bored with you." his smile would be appropriate on the face of a school teacher, which he had been once, but the sound of his voice held a sharp biting inflection.

"You and your games... Why should I do anything for you?" she glared at him.

"Well, you could come and live here full time, Michiko. Cut ties with your father. If you would work for me, and only me, I'd be much more accommodating." he raised both brows.

"Not happening. Give me the instructions. This is faster than researching it myself with no real leads."

"That, it is." he sighed, waving a hand in front of his face. "If you came here more often, stayed for good, even, and worked for me full time... I'd have simply told you what you wanted. No games necessary, Michiko, dear." the hint in his voice implied he truly wanted her to do that, as he'd been asking for years. He had been trying to get her away from her family for a long time. He had once told her, when pressed, that he didn't like that she lived with the chief of police and he couldn't hire her very often because of it. It made her very reluctant to move out, wondering what sort of things he'd want to hire her for that the chief of police shouldn't know about.

She dug her heels in on this old topic between them; she would not be leaving her family, "I'm not your permanent employee."

"Yet you'll work for me now and then." He got to his feet in a graceful movement, uncrossing his legs and rising swiftly. He was halfway across the room, as she held the envelope up between them, before he turned back to face her, and tilted his head in her direction. "Really, though, how do you always manage to get into the building like that? What an odd ability, shadow child."

She smirked, "Ninja secrets. _Shh_ , I'm a spy, _don't tell!_ Didn't you say you knew _everything_?" At this playful admission he laughed, waving his hand at her, as if dismissing her accusation. He bowed politely, put on his gloves once more, and slid out of the room on silent feet. She followed him out to the elevator, leaving the apartment door unlocked. He called it down by pressing a button on the control panel embedded in the wall, and waited for the door to open, hands in his pockets.

As he stepped into the elevator she walked up behind him, just outside of the door. "Do consider my offer, at least, Michiko."

She shook her head in the negative, "I don't want to leave my family. If that's what you want when I work for you, it's out of the question."

"Pity. You're what, nineteen now? Old enough to live alone, yet you cling to them like a babe." He said, as the door slid shut between them. She knew it for the parting shot it was intended to be.

Unruffled, she turned and headed for the hallway to take the stairs down. She could regenerate her chakra while walking and nibbling on another energy bar. So what if she was old enough to live on her own, and this place was rent-free? She had a family that she cared about, whether they were from before, or any other life time didn't matter- they were hers in the here and now and she was not interested in losing any more time with them. She wanted to be there for Light, and Sayu.

The envelope actually contained two papers. One was a map, the other detailed instructions on what Dan wanted her to do that night. It was pretty straightforward, and surprisingly, there was a tiny white flash drive, an extremely thin one, in the envelope as well. She almost lost it when opening the thing, as it flew right between her fingers. She caught it with a reflexive motion of her left arm as she examined the pages in her right hand.

' _Placebo Effect. Odd name for a company.'_ She pondered to herself as she reached the bottom of the stairs, having finished reading the instructions and pocketed the papers.

She stepped out into the brightly lit lobby and headed for the exit, waving to Wendy as she went. Wendy, who was surprisingly wearing a lime green dress with neon green ribbons in her hair today, was not visibly startled in the least to see her suddenly appear without having first entered, though she looked up and gave her an evaluating gaze. Wendy attempted a stunted wave back, her key chain bracelet jangling on her wrist, as she went back to her book while turning a page, her blue eyes falling back to the paper as it was what was really holding her attention. The disinterested girl really wasn't much of a guard, being so distracted all the time.

Stopping to consider her earlier musings about the girl, Shikako turned around and headed to the tall desk where Wendy was seated. "You're psychic, right?" she asked, resting her arms on the tall, chest height desk and leaning forward towards the reading girl to obtain her full attention.

Wendy nodded, turning another page. She seemed taller than she was, seated on an upraised bar stool behind the desk. Her eyes kept darting between the book and Shikako's face.

Shikako wondered how to phrase it right, without being too rude, "What's your ability, if you don't mind my asking? I mean, I don't really know any other psychics so... I wondered, well, are we all alike, or...?" she heard all psychics were different, according to Dan's explanation.

Wendy closed her book, and leveled her gaze directly at Shikako, meeting her eye for eye. "I see your dreams. _All of them, everyone's_. I don't need to sleep if I watch dreams." She smiled, though it didn't reach her eyes. "Yours are quite unique, _Shikabane-hime_."

"You... you know that name." She gripped the desk top tightly. ' _This girl isn't kidding then._ '

"You had such amazing adventures. They're very fun to watch. If I had to pick a favorite of your friends I'd say it would be Gaara. He's very, very much like me. We both never sleep. Oh, I left a magazine for you in your room, did you like it?" She shyly toyed with the cover of the book she was reading, and Shikako finally realized it was a manga. The first volume of _Naruto_. Wendy tapped the cover with her dark green painted fingernail, "You're not there, at all." She then pointed at Shikako's head, saying, "Yet you _are_ , Shikako, _in here_." Wendy tapped her on the forehead lightly. Shikako blinked, uncertain what to make of this girl.

Then she wondered aloud, "Does Dan know...?"

"He isn't as all knowing as he makes out to be. I never told him, and as far as I know, he's got no interest in comics," she informed her, with an out-of-place wistful look. "He just talks big. And relies on his psychic spies quite a bit."

"Do you know what I'm after?" she prodded. Wendy looked away, playing with her book once more, flipping the pages repeatedly.

"Easy answers? Though I don't really peg you as the type to go the overly easy route, unless it is right in front of you and makes the most logical sense." she nodded. "In this case, you're not too far off. You might want to look a bit closer to home for this one. You aren't certain where to look, right? Try that."

 _'How would that even work? To prove that Light isn't Kira, Kira must be found elsewhere...'_

Shikako frowned, her voice going hard, "Light is not Kira." At this announcement, the girl in green looked back at her and laughed long and loud.

Irritated, Shikako glared, "What's so funny?"

"I've seen his dreams. He does think that the world would be better without criminals in it, you know. Isn't that at least, the way a Kira supporter would think? I don't think he's as perfect as you believe." Her voice had taken on a teasing quality.

"Light can't be Kira." Shikako said, firm and resolute, "I know him. He's my little brother."

"He's not like your other brothers from before." the girl said softly.

Shikako closed her eyes and shook her head, "I know that. And I also know he's not evil."

"You believe that wholeheartedly." Wendy sighed and caressed the crease of her book with her nails, her eyes becoming crescent slits as she studied it.

Shikako tapped her own fingers against the desktop, "Can you tell me what I want to know?"

"I'm forbidden. He'll know if I do, and I know he'd know. He'd know to look, you see." She rolled her eyes, "I'd lose my job, and since this is where I live and work, that's not too good for me. Besides, Onni is my dad, honestly. Don't want to disappoint him, right?" the blue-eyed girl said this as if it were a joke. This time she really did smile genuinely.

Shikako leaned back, "I didn't know."

"I know. Not biological, he just adopted me ages ago. You... know how that feels." Wendy said. She rolled a curl of her pale brown hair around her fingers as she inspected Shikako, "Anyways, you don't look like a manga character, you know. Then again, the ones in your dreams look so real, like real people. They're really real to you, aren't they? You're not just crazy or something. You were really there before. Too many real looking faces in varying scenes to be just figments of your imagination. I know, I've seen many of them, in all people's dreams, but never as detailed and vivid as yours." She tapped her chin, "And damn, but some of those guys are really good looking in real life, aren't they? Heh."

"I was really there," no point in denying it now. Her fingernails scratched the paint on the desk before she realized she'd clenched them too tightly. This was very uncomfortable territory, but the girl in front of her seemed not to notice, though her eyes narrowed in thought. "And I suppose, they were."

"Huh. Makes me wonder what else is real." Wendy slipped her hair over the back of her ear and picked up her book once more. It was as much of a dismissal as Shikako had ever seen, like when her sensei used to wave his little genin off to do a D rank by themselves and stick his own nose in an Icha Icha book. The girl was well immersed in the world of the manga once more, oblivious to this world.

"It does, doesn't it?" she said mostly to herself as she backed away from the desk and headed out the door to retrieve her bike.

 _'Well, that was interesting.'_

According to the ticking clock on the far wall as she stepped toward the glass exit door, it was one in the morning when she left Dan's building. She only had a few hours until daylight.

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...

 **Author's Note:**

 _Redshirt Army,_ Thank you for the review! That really made me think, and probably saved me a lot of trouble in the long run. This is good practice.

Also, Thank you everyone for the helpful reviews! I know I don't usually respond to them all individually, but if I did I'd never have time to write or read stories. (And I read a lot. It keeps me sane.) It's nice to know someone else is enjoying it.

-*-On a humorous note, someone I know mailed me a cosplay Death Note, complete with names written in it from the series. This is highly amusing to me. I believe that was that person's way of hinting they wanted me to post this. Or take up the mantle of Kira, myself. Not sure which.

...Eh, it's a toss up.

*scribbles*

...

 _It didn't work_. Oh well.

*shoves it under my pillow and feigns innocence*


	9. Chapter 9: Remedy

Dreaming of Death Note: 9 - Remedy

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Dreaming of Death Note 9: Remedy

There weren't very many places to look to find what Shikako was seeking, but an all knowing psychic informant couldn't hurt. One thing she'd never reveal to him is the fact that she was reincarnated, but if Wendy knew through watching her dreams, then there was the possibility he could know of it regardless of her decision. She had never outright asked him what the story line for this world was, (and how strange would _that_ sound?) First, she wanted to discover the truth of Kira, to clear her family's name. Whatever the circumstances of this world, Kira had to be involved. She could only move forward, from here.

Humoring Dan was an easy way to get information and have it most likely be accurate. If she had tried to force the issue with physical violence he could have told her anything just to get her to stop. She had known that for the longest time. There were, however, levels to humoring him that she was not willing to go to- and leaving her family was that line she would not cross. They were really her only reason for feeling attached to this reality, and she was not cutting ties with them.

If she killed Dan, then one source of information would have run dry, just like that. It would have been a shame, but if it had been a necessity she would have done so. She still might, if he becomes a problem for her. She could easily ignore his posturing because she knew she was stronger than him. She had always kept her shadow well within reach of him, just in case. There was a power play that even Dan didn't seem to be privy to, and though he knew it existed in that he knew of her ability to move shadows, he didn't seem to understand the implications that were present in her playing with her shadow at his feet.

Perhaps he was confident that the child he had seen grow up would never deign to harm him? Maybe he was used to adoration from his followers and the other psychic children wouldn't dare to hurt him? She wasn't as easily wowed as they were, and having been born with more knowledge and experience than anyone in this world could have guessed at, she could easily see through him. When she was younger, she wasn't very strong yet, and was wary of his presence and her inability to really do anything about it. Now she had grown into what power her chakra would provide her with, gaining a reserve that she knew the limits of, and control that she felt comfortable with. Now it was her choice to associate with him.

Whatever the source of his confidence, she didn't care. He didn't know he had a tiger by the tail, and she was just twitching it to play with him, all with a feral grin he couldn't see through the shadows. Shadows that could pierce his heart if she so wanted.

Wendy's confirmation that he wasn't as well informed as he pretended to be, and Dan's questioning of how she got into the building were a blatant give-away that he was less the all-knowing power that he portrayed and more of a central figure for his psychic spies to rally behind. He wasn't exactly Danzo, and she wasn't at all worried that he could truly be that way, but he was still an oddity in his own right. Information was power, true, but so far he wasn't doing anything with it, or didn't understand what he really had. Shikako now had the impression that Wendy knew more than Dan did, and she wasn't all that concerned by it, if the girl's lack of motivation was anything to go by. So long as she wasn't sharing, Shikako wasn't caring. But Wendy, for some reason, was either afraid of Dan or afraid of angering him. She wasn't yet sure exactly which. Probably the latter, if her confession was honest. She might be able to use that.

She checked the papers Dan had given her once more, and followed the map to its destination.

'Placebo Effect' was the name of an up and coming drug company. It was an odd name for a drug company, but she didn't dwell on the semantics. She didn't have much time in which to work tonight.

After a short bike ride over, it was relatively easy to get in to the locked building by climbing onto the second floor, even without wasting her chakra on that task. She pushed a large dumpster next to the wall, slipped on top, and climbed up the solid metal rain gutter until she could reach the lower hanging rung of the emergency ladder under a fire escape. She opened a window, pushed away the screen, and slipped right in.

She had no hardships in disabling their security cameras, then heading up to the upper floors where they were storing their computers. She simply climbed the walls, covered their cameras with her shadows until she had them disabled by either ripping out the wiring or turning them in a different direction, sometimes with her shadow-stitching alone. There would be no visual recording of her being there. When she needed to handle something with her hands, she wore her sturdy gloves to hide any fingerprints.

The rare cameras in the hallways were as easily dealt with as the ones on the outside of the building; her shadows jumped up, turning them to face the ceiling instead of the floors and made certain they weren't rotating ones. There were only occasional cameras pointed at entrances of note, and all of them were the stable, non-moving kind. It actually wasn't too much of a strain on her chakra reserves if she was careful, now that she had recovered some. She had been practicing with using the bare minimum chakra to move her shadows for years. Too much of even a small thing had consequences, however, so she tried to minimize her chakra use in this place.

She peered around the corner with a small compact mirror in her hand, only to discover there was a rather largely built, very muscular guard in a guard station positioned at the intersection of five hallways. He was sound asleep in his chair at a computer behind a circular desk, thick arms crossed over his wide chest, a navy blue security uniform announcing him in bright white English letters as the 'Night Watch'. The flickering blue light of the old monitor setting in front of him illuminated his bearded face, eyes closed, head slumped, soft snuffling sounds coming from him at regular intervals. This was... well, she couldn't have written a more unlikely and cliche scenario. She checked the room for cameras, found it suspiciously clear, slipped her mirror closed and slid it into a pocket in her bag, then moved in.

Silently, she came up behind him and latched onto him with her shadow. She shadow-walked him into a nearby bathroom, positive that there wouldn't be cameras inside. A quick glance told her she was right. With a gentle motion she sat him on the floor, then turned to lock him in there. There was even a convenient padlock installed on the outer top of the bathroom door to use to do just that.

She quietly shut the door behind her, only to have it violently slam into her back, shooting blinding pain up her spine. The guard must have awoken when she walked him through the door, though he'd given no outward signs of coming to. He kicked the bathroom door open with crashing force, splintering the cheap wood along the length of the door from top to bottom. As he rushed out behind her in that same moment he aimed to slam a thick elbow down into her slender neck, and her attempt at dodging only barely pulled her far enough away to avoid most of the injury. The blow still connected, grazing her from behind. She luckily didn't bite her tongue as he knocked her back. Pain blossomed up her neck and she hoped she wasn't concussed.

She couldn't really chakra enhance her body in this world, and she lacked the speed that ninjas of Naruto-verse took for granted, sorely missing it. She could only move at a normal and mundane pace; still fast and only human, but move she did. The unexpected strike had her off balance, but she fell into a habit learned long ago and quickly regained her footing, spinning to face him as she dodged another swing. The pain in her neck that throbbed all the way down her back was excruciating, but Shikako had lived through worse, many times before. She backed away a step, straightening her pose, and sized him up. A growl escaped his lips, and in return she smiled serenely, making him escalate the sound into the mockery of a feral roar.

He pulled out his baton with his left hand, held back behind him out of her range still and prepared to swing. He was looming and bulky compared to her slight frame, with a farther reach. Though he moved quickly she moved much faster. She rapidly punched him in the chin, aiming as if to strike right up through his face and hearing his teeth crack against each other for the trouble. She then knocked his swinging arm away with her own and followed up with another fast hit to the side of his neck.

Both of them were visibly wincing in intense pain. Her breath was even, strong but controlled, while his gravelly gasping breaths were rushed; his labored breathing announced he was really out of shape, though he didn't look it with all of those bulking muscles.

Blood dripped from his gaping mouth in a thin trickle to disappear into his untrimmed black beard, his wide brown eyes were narrowed, full of intense anger. The wrinkles on his face as he furrowed his brow made him look like an angry bear, and she realized with slight amusement in that instant that was what he sounded like, too.

The darker tan of his skin shone oily in the dim fluorescent light dangling from the low ceiling just above him, and he almost smacked the crown of his head against the very low hanging light fixture. He was quite tall, for a Japanese man. He had size and muscle she couldn't really compete with but she was fast, powerful, and wasn't concerned.

She grabbed at his weapon with her shadow, then ripped the baton from his grasp. Sweeping his feet out from under him with another shadow tendril, she had him face-down on the floor in seconds while wishing she had something simple like a knock out tag, but such things just wouldn't function here.

She slammed the baton into his head, letting up on her shadows when he visibly stilled. The slender weapon slipped in her grasp a bit at the strike, sliding badly against the sleek cloth of the gloves she wore, but she didn't drop it. Her chakra was already waning, she felt herself tiring from the sudden exertion. She needed to conserve her energy if she could, as having it take on the shadow-stitching form was much more chakra intensive when used in combat, actively fighting someone else's motion, and she'd been doing it in spurts when moving the cameras all night.

She checked his pulse; rapid from exertion and barely slowing. The blood welled up out of his mouth, dribbling down his cheek to the floor. He'd seen her, nothing she could do about that. He'd know about her power, and with him not being one of the psychics that had motivation to keep it secret himself, she didn't want that. She couldn't afford to be caught here, over something so trivial. There was a chance he wouldn't be able to identify her, but she wasn't willing to take it. Better safe than sorry.

She snapped his neck with one last pulse of chakra threaded shadows wrapped like a noose around his throat and left him on the floor at the broken bathroom door, leaving no physical trace of her hands on him other than where she'd punched him through her gloves. She checked her gloves, seeing they were clean of blood, and her clothing didn't get any on it either. Now they would know she'd been here, and as she dropped the weapon on top of the corpse she thought that was just sloppy, but there was nothing she could do about that. At least no one would know who she was, so she had that benefit.

She headed into the next room, seeing the bank of computer towers storing the company's information all lined up against the far wall. This was what she was after.

For all the paranoia of occasional cameras, there weren't even passwords on the company's offline network or computers! The flash drive had a program on it to help her get past those, but she never needed to use it. She did, however, run the other program that Dan's instructions told her to run, on the computer in the office belonging to the head researcher, which she could access down the hall from the guard's station. She didn't know quite what the program did as there was no visible user interface after it began running but the letter had explained that it would leave a message for this employee to read later, offering him a job at Dan's place. She wasn't sure if that meant this researcher was a psychic or not.

Thinking about how she'd be leaving a corpse alongside the message, she wondered if that counted as intimidation or motivation to accept the offer? She shrugged it off and kept working. It wasn't her problem if they traced it back to Dan, either. He wouldn't be stupid enough to reveal the psychics to the world through his own intervention, or her involvement.

 _'I wondered before just what kind of jobs would Dan want me to do that he wouldn't want my father, the Chief of Police, to know about? Hm. I guess this would count as one of them. And I'd agree, since it's really not worth the trouble of him finding out.'_ It wasn't exactly a government sanctioned action, but then, this time around she wasn't inclined to be loyal to any one governing body where her personal interest were concerned. She'd long moved past that as more of a minor concern, having seen many worlds full of corruption. Even if she occasionally helped the investigators with their work, she was not a member of the local law enforcement. Selfish? Perhaps. She chose her own path.

It was as she was copying the data from the company's research computer onto the provided flash drive that something caught her interest- the subject of their study: A superior drug, in dissolving pill form, which can efficiently and reliably counter any heart attack as it was happening, if taken fast enough. She knew there were medicines like this, such as nitroglycerin that's used in a similar manner, but that one was not guaranteed to save a person in an emergency, even if taken multiple times. These were listed as being revolutionary, for all types of heart attacks, and it claimed to only need one. It also claimed to prevent them before they could occur.

' _This isn't an antacid pill you can take because you knew you would need one after that taco. Heart attacks aren't predictable.'_ Then again, with someone like Kira around, perhaps heart attacks were predictable. Apparently there was a pool of many thousands of danger-zone participants who volunteered for the research, as they would most likely have a heart attack at the rate they were going. Of those, two hundred and thirty five that did have heart attacks also took the drug in a timely manner, and every single one of them recovered quickly with no more heart attack symptoms. It was either a really good coincidence or this thing was working. The newest set of volunteers were death row inmates. Fifteen of them were recent heart attack victims, and all of them survived.

A drug like this on the market would make big money, in a world dominated by Kira. Dan wanted the formula to learn how make it. She got him what he wanted, along with all the test data on the research and development of the drug in multiple forms: injections, liquids, sprays, even patches.

The test results conducted at this facility were all positive. So far they had been nothing but promising, with hope for future preventative possibilities in an injection form that could be taken biannually. She perused the data, and decided it would be worthwhile to get her hands on the drug itself, what with her family dealing with someone who kills with unnatural heart attacks. Having finished copying the data to the flash drive, she pocketed it as she slipped up the staircase and headed to the storage unit where the drug was being kept. She'd had to pick a few locks to get in, but that was no issue.

Here she was again annoyed by the fact she'd never once gotten a single one of her storage scrolls and seals to work in this world. Chakra from within and projected out of the body? Sure. Chakra use in genjutsu to manipulate someone else? Absolutely. Seals on any surface, even her own body? Nope. It would be so useful to simply store things in them and be done with it, like to hide a random body or any other inconvenience she had laying around. Oh well.

She stole a fresh sandwich baggie out of the storage room she passed through and placed several handfuls of the pills into it, taking them from a sealed storage bin she had read the reference number from in the computer's data. She had checked that these were definitely the finished product they'd been testing. She stuck them into her backpack for safe keeping. They might come in useful, if it really worked the way the data claimed it did. Supposedly they had a projected shelf life of one year, and they had been sitting around for less than half that time according to the label on the bin. Sometimes you just had to get over your self-depreciating issues, and she'd come to terms with the fact she'd need to take things out of necessity long ago, so there was no guilt over taking it, though she took it for herself and not for the 'mission'. It was potentially a shield she needed to arm herself with, and knew she could make use of it.

With a smirk, she headed out the way she'd come in, sealing up the window she'd entered through upon leaving. It was a quick ride back to Dan's apartments. She finished off the last of her protein bars and sipped a water bottle on the way over. It wasn't the best thing to consume constantly, but with her chakra use and how her body was using up the energy so quickly she was feeling drained and she needed it. She'd probably used more chakra today than she had in the past month all together, and she was tired. She wasn't exactly an Akimichi with their ability to directly convert what they ate into energy, but the idea was similar.

She wasn't certain if her body functioned differently for her in this world with her chakra use than it did for anyone else, or if everyone was capable and simply hadn't learned. Since genjutsus worked on others, they had to have some form of chakra coils that could be manipulated, at the very least. She figured if most people could use chakra, they'd have groups that knew how to by now. Psychics aside, she figured it would be a known topic. Maybe something else had been reborn with her and it made her different? She had no idea. The thought of Gelel crossed her mind, but she hadn't had any experience with that entity since she had died in the Naruto-verse. It was probably nothing.

Wendy looked up as she entered the building, knowing to expect her arrival. It was already half past three in the morning, and true to her word, the girl didn't look tired in the least. She was reading a different book, a romance novel this time. It was written in English, according to the writing on the cover. The girl definitely looked foreign, so knowing another language wasn't very surprising.

"You have it?" Wendy asked, holding her hand out already to receive the flash drive.

"Sure, piece of cake. Though I did have to eliminate a security guard, so in the morning they'll find his body, just as a head's up." Wendy nodded solemnly, dismissing that rather quickly, Shikako thought. Shikako yawned and made a move to hand it over, then pulled her hand away when the girl tried to take it, her yawn shifting into a smile. "Tell me something though, are you afraid of Dan?"

The girl paused, taken aback. "No, I just like him. He's... likable."

"Oh, yes, he's real likable." Shikako deadpanned, "Likable, like a migraine."

Wendy shrugged, "He helped me when I needed it, gave me a home. A job I can do any time of the day. That's likable to me."

"Have you considered moving away from him? You said if you made him angry that wouldn't be good for you, as you work for him, but if he's worth anything at all he wouldn't hurt you, right?" she ventured. "So he hurts his psychic kids, doesn't he? I'm guessing right, aren't I?"

The girl shrugged a little lighter this time, with only her left shoulder, looking away, "If any of his psychic kids cross him they disappear. No one knows where they go. No one sees them leave. I try to follow them by their dreams, but they stop dreaming. Even when people don't remember dreaming, there's still dreams. I guess they're dead. But Dan himself doesn't dream; I can't see his at all. Still, I don't fear him. I'm his favorite." She sighed, then looked back, "He likes you, you know. Because you're stubborn. Because you say no. Likes the challenge of trying to get you to agree. I think he wants to be more important to you than your family, I think it makes him feel superior or something, but he doesn't earn things like that."

"He did that for you, though?" she questioned, already assuming to know the answer.

"Well, he is my family. He adopted me. Mine is a special case. He tends to pick someone to focus on and then he just doesn't let it go. He sees you as a puzzle he wants to solve, from what I can glean. He's wanted you to work for him for a long time. It's kinda getting old, in my opinion." She held out her hand once more for the thumb drive. Shikako dropped it into her palm. Wendy filed it away in a drawer.

Shikako raised her brows, looking the girl in the eye, "You know, if you ever need a place to go, I'd help you. I'm just saying, you don't have to rely on him. I know people who would be able to help, if you need a place to stay and don't want to be seen associating with me. Do you really want to stay with someone that makes people disappear as a normal occurrence?"

"That..." her breath hitched, "Is considerate of you, Michiko. I will remember." The brown haired girl looked over her shoulder, as if trying to see someone behind her. She seemed hesitant, pausing and looking around the room uncertainly, as if someone were watching them. Shikako couldn't feel anyone else there, and there was a suspicious lack of cameras. She looked back in Shikako's direction. She then said, in a quiet voice, "I meant it, when I said you should look close to home."

The uneasy feeling returned, as Shikako took that in. She did not want to admit that what she believed about her brother was wrong. Of brothers, she tended to have strong convictions, and shaking those off was not an easy thing. He'd never given any signs of being disturbed in any way, or unstable in the least. His family had taught him to be a kind, sweet, generous boy. As far as she had seen he had always doted on his family and cared for his friends. She wanted to believe that she knew him well, and couldn't understand as an end result, why Ryuzaki and even Wendy thought that he could be anything other than what she knew him to be.

They had never met him. So what if the girl saw his dreams; do your nightmares make you what you are? No, they didn't. Light had every reason to have nightmares or bad dreams about criminals, having seen two of Sayu's friends killed right in front of him recently. It was a normal response to such a trauma, and it didn't make him evil.

You can't prove a negative. She would just have to search for the positive.

She ran a hand through her hair and backed away from the desk. "Thanks, I guess I will."

The bike ride home was uneventful. That is, until she pulled her new black road bike up into her family's driveway. From out of the darkness right next to her house a man stepped forward, a heavy coat adorned his shoulders and he held a lit cigarette in hand. The smoke curled around his head, forming a halo in the dark as the porch light illuminated his shadowed form. She stopped at the edge of his cast shadow.

"Having fun yet?" Agent Sora asked. He tapped the cigarette with his index finger until the ashes hit the pavement, the acrid stench hit her nose. The ashes burned out into blackness after they flared a vibrant red in the dark.

 _'Crap. I knew I forgot something.'_

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 **Author's Note:** I rewrote this three times, realizing I'd never written a proper fight scene before. Sorry, this took me longer than expected! As I was writing this chapter I had a great idea (translation: _my head hit the desk_ ) to alter how this story ends, thus I have incorporated that in now. *Insert evil laugh!* Everything is still the same as what I planned, so I don't have to rewrite anything I've got plotted down so far, I'm just adding something fun to it at the end which ties everything together nicely.

Also, for clarification to some reviewers who have asked- as this story is about Shikako's reincarnation in the Death Note universe it will follow her primarily unless absolutely necessary to show another perspective. I'm not really including Light or L's personal points of view because it's not a story primarily about them. I go into writing this assuming that the reader is familiar with them from Death Note, and with Shikako from DoS. Likewise, how DoS follows Shikako rather than Naruto during the time skip, the equivalent happens here.

Thank you for the helpful feedback and writing advice, in reviews and on the forums! I knew there were a few things I was overlooking, having someone else point it out helped. I've been trying to figure out how much is too much detail to add, and forgetting that sometimes I'm leaving out some accidentally. With a story that's published chapter by chapter as it is written, sometimes it's not so easy to go back and fix little things like that to make the story whole and complete when you realize two chapters later that you forgot to add in the reference to it before because it wasn't yet relevant.


	10. Chapter 10: Falsifying Information

Dreaming of Death Note: 10 - Falsifying Information

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"Hey, who the hell are you, and what do you want with Michiko? Why are you hanging out outside her house? Are you some kind of pervert?" the young but gruff voice shouted from behind Shikako. Spinning to face him, Shikako realized she hadn't even felt this person approaching. In fact, it felt as if he wasn't even there still, though she could clearly see his outline in the dark as he rode closer on a bicycle, passing under a dim street light. She knew that voice, though.

"I'll call the cops on you! You know this is the chief of police's house? You'll be hanged for sure!" he rode up closer, coming to a halt awkwardly on his hefty green mountain bike that looked really out of place in the city. Hideo glared at Agent Sora from under his baseball cap, his black hair tied back in a long tail sticking out beneath it. He made as if he was trying to fish a phone out of a button-up pocket in his coat that was too stubborn to unbutton. He blended into the darkness almost as well as Shikako did, wearing a camouflage print in dark navy blue, black and grey. It almost looked like he was wearing pajamas, and considering what time of night it was that wouldn't be surprising, though he had a thick black coat on over it all.

"And who might you be?" the agent asked, voice level and eyes assessing. The cigarette smoke still swirled around him in an evanescent mist.

"I'm the angry boyfriend that's gonna kick your lily ass! That's all ya need to know. Now get the hell away from Michiko!" Giving up on getting the phone out, Hideo pointed angrily at the agent instead, glaring for all he was worth.

"Hideo! I appreciate the thought, but I really don't need you to-" he turned to Michiko at her admonishment, a toothy grin on his face.

"Why not?" He interrupted her, "I'm a good boyfriend, aren't I? If you've got some kinda creepy stalker, I'll kick him to kingdom come!"

 _'You're one to talk, Hideo. Wait, I could use this...'_

Michiko internally sighed, remembering that this was probably her own fault. _'You go on one accidental date with a guy and he never lets go.'_ she thought.

It had really been a misunderstanding, and the offer to 'Go catch a movie with me!' was misinterpreted by her when she thought that he was inviting the room at large, with how loud he always was. They'd been sitting in the classroom, right after the bell rang to signal the end of class, and everyone had been gathering their stuff together to leave. Being the class clown, he was always making a ton of noise and gaining a lot of attention. That was a few months ago.

She'd gone, enjoyed the movie, and bought them some popcorn though he'd insisted on paying for her movie ticket. It hadn't even struck her as awkward when it was just the two of them because people have lives, right? Sure. Their other friends from class were just busy, that was all.

Then after it all was said and done he'd walked her home. She thought they were having an interesting conversation, a back and forth about 'the way the movie should have ended' with ever increasingly impossible outcomes, but he suddenly tried to make a move on her. She had turned him down, gently.

Well, actually she'd slammed the door in his face after thanking him for a fun night. (It had been a good movie, after all.) Why slam the door? Well, it was because he'd given her a quick and unexpected sloppy kiss that made her back away and wish to find a breath mint. He followed up the next day by insisting on telling everyone at the college he was dating her, and she was off limits. It was sort of annoying, and she'd gone to great pains to end those rumors.

He still sent her flowers on occasion, to her mother's delight. Her siblings kept asking when she was going to marry him already, as he'd shown up at their house multiple times before, always insistently asking for her. (She closed the curtains on the windows, to Light's constant snickering.)

Really, it was a pain. Considering the circumstances- her sneaking out at night without her assigned shadow to tail her- she could make it look like she'd had a romantic rendezvous, and maybe they'd overlook it...

"Hideo, he's a friend of my brother's, ok? He was just spending the night here." She tried to ease the situation by giving him the accepted lie.

"Wait, I heard rumors about that, that your brother's been seeing some guy... He always was dating girls before, but some guy just randomly started going everywhere with him yesterday. I heard he was pretty much hanging off of him, with how close they were! The girls at the school saw! I didn't know it was true!"

There goes Agent Sora, blushing, once more. He stuttered as Hideo looked him up and down, then growled out, "Stop that, you brats!"

"Oh, so you're not Light's boyfriend? Guess I was mistaken, sorry! Hey, you're not after _my_ girl, are you? I'll fight you." At Hideo's loud outburst, Michiko rubbed her temple, feeling a headache coming on. Hideo raised his fists in a mock battle pose.

"You aren't fighting anyone. Seriously, calm down." Michiko slipped off her sleek black road bike and walked it over to Hideo. Then, keeping Agent Sora in her peripheral vision and making sure he could see them clearly, she reached over and gave Hideo a peck on the cheek. "Go home, knight in shining armor."

Shocked, and visibly elated, the young man smiled. "HAH! Yes. Ok. Love ya, night!" He slipped his feet back onto the pedals and hurried away into the darkness, 'whooping' so loud that he probably woke the whole neighborhood.

 _'Now, did it work...?'_ she turned a sheepish grin towards Agent Sora. "Sorry?" She asked, hesitantly, at his narrowed gaze (his cheeks were still red, probably since it was so cold out.) She continued, "Oh come on, am I supposed to have a chaperone when meeting my boyfriend? Seriously?"

The man sighed, dropped his cigarette, and snuffed it out with his heel, "Get inside already. Lover boy needs to clear it with us before you two take off. And yes, you need a chaperone. This is an ongoing investigation, after all, not a high school prom. I thought you were more mature than that. If you're innocent, take this seriously."

"Sorry!" she bowed as she walked past him and locked her bike up in the garage next to the others.

 _'Crap, now I feel like I owe Hideo one. Then again, he's been intentionally irritating, so... I guess it evens out.'_

As she stepped into her bedroom, Agent Rei looked up from a cellphone she was texting on. Her tired voice pierced the darkness like a knife, "You're up at an insane hour. You make a habit of this?" her phone beeped as she hit send. Probably telling L that their run-away was back.

"No, not really. Just had to meet my boyfriend. His name is Hideo." It's not like she was sharing his last name too, and it wasn't really a secret, but she cringed at having said that, anyway.

Absentmindedly, Agent Rei began texting a new message, not noticing the girl's agitation. "Don't you have school today?"

"I actually have work, and that's not until later. I can sleep awhile until then. It's Light that has classes in the morning, then we attend a class together later at night, after I'm done with work." she informed her.

The woman sighed, "Fine. Go to bed. I could hear him from up here."

She smirked, the boy was very loud. "Sorry, did he wake you?"

"No, Agent Sora did. He came in after seeing you were gone. Somehow I slept through that. I'm not a heavy sleeper, so you're quite the quiet one, aren't you?" she looked up as her phone beeped once more, then put it away into her bag near her sleeping bag. "Sora said I wouldn't wake for anything, he actually had to slap me to wake me."

"Wow, rude awakening." Michiko yawned, tossing her coat onto the chair beside the computer. She climbed right into bed, not caring what she was wearing, leaving her backpack on the floor beside the bed as she did so. She'd already stuffed her winter gloves into the pocket of her work jacket downstairs, when she'd come into the house.

' _The slap broke the genjutsu._ ' she mused.

The woman looked at her carefully, her gaze just as assessing as the other agent's. "Why do you need your backpack to meet with your boyfriend?"

The lie was instantaneous, and totally believable, "We're classmates. He wanted to borrow my notebook."

"Oh, I see. You two do a lot of ' _borrowing'_ of your ' _notebooks_ ', is that what kids call it these days?"

"Hey!" Michiko tossed a spare pillow at her. The agent ducked it with a grin.

Michiko remembered something amusing to verbally throw back at her, "And didn't Agent Sora ' _borrow_ ' Light's ' _notebook_ ,' huh? I think he did..." she said, teasingly.

"Oh, shush. I want to get some sleep here. I'm not awake enough for this." Rei fell back into her sleeping bag, her dark hair falling like a curtain to hide her face.

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...

"I deliver them on my bike, you know." Michiko said as she slipped her shoes on. The two women were heading out the door, to go to Michiko's workplace. Her dad was with Ryuzaki per usual, and her sister and mom had gone out shopping together to try to lift Sayu's spirits and get her out of the house for a while, meanwhile Light was still at class with Sora. Pleasantly, Shikako hadn't felt chills all day.

"Yes, I've had one brought over. Ryuzaki sent me a road bike to use. Actually, he said it's mine to keep, so I hope it works for me. I'll keep up with you."

Michiko's eyes were mocking, as well as her tone as she eyed the other woman speculatively, "Can you though? I ride pretty fast. I have a reputation to uphold. _Fastest Flying Pizzas_ this side of town."

"That's quite a reputation."

"Sometimes mild is good." she said in a dry tone. At her strange comment, Agent Rei shrugged, not knowing what to make of that.

"Do you know what 'parkour' is?" the girl asked innocently.

"I've heard of it."

"Then this will be _fun_."

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...

"This was _not_ fun. When you said 'Fastest Flying Pizzas' I didn't realize you meant actually 'flying,' by the way." Agent Rei could handle a lot of things. High speed chases were no problem, on foot, or in a car. Randomly jumping off of busy overhead traffic ramps on a speeding bike with nothing but air as a buffer between yourself and crashing into blind oblivion was a bit overdoing it.

"This. Girl. Is. _Crazy_." The agent informed her she was going to text Ryuzaki and inform him of this. In those exact words. She felt it was pertinent, in all ways. As soon as her lunch settled in her gut, once more, that is. Plus, she needed two hands with which to text. This only made Michiko laugh. "This was most certainly not fun."

Shikako's blood was pumping as the exercise was doing wonders for waking her up. "It was for me. I can't believe you actually made that jump across the roof of the sedan!"

"You did that on purpose? That's someone's car, you know! It will get scuffed up, do you have insurance?" the agent glared at her charge knowingly. "Even more important, does your workplace?"

"Meh. Who knows? By the way, that thing's been parked there for ages and the owner doesn't care if it gets banged up." Michiko rolled her dark eyes, "Been there, talked to that guy, brought him a pizza for the trouble. I do that now and then, and he's cool with it. All's well that lands well. If he ever moved it I'd have to find a different route, rather than jumping down off that overhead crosswalk. I deliver in this direction often."

"We are never doing that again," the agent said with conviction.

"I do this again tomorrow." Michiko said, checking that she hadn't lost the little yellow envelope out of her pocket after that last jump. She'd gotten it from an old man that smelled of sushi as a tip on her last delivery. She was eager to read what it said, but later, when she didn't have an extra set of eyes on her.

"It's official, I hate this job. Why did I sign up for this?" Agent Rei complained, wobbling to a halt on her pretty red bike slowly. She still hadn't recovered from blindly following in Michiko's wake, at ridiculous speed, just trying to keep her in sight. The girl had thankfully slowed and waited for her guard to catch up. Her reprieve was short lived.

"Race you down the stairs!" the girl shot off like a firework.

"We are not race... stairs?" Rei's voice cracked at the end, but her charge had already vanished headfirst down a winding concrete staircase leading into the subway, cheering at her to keep up. "This is not happening. Normal bikes aren't even _allowed_ down there!"

She was totally messing with her.

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...

 **Author's Note** : This started out as a much, much longer chapter, and so I broke it into multiples.


	11. Chapter 11: Of Murder Over Coffee

Dreaming of Death Note: 11 - Of Murder Over Coffee

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 **EDIT:** Something got left out of this chapter towards the middle, as I had two massive files and was merging them together to make slightly less monstrous files we'll call 'chapters,' so I've gone back and fixed it. Thank you Redshirt Army for pointing that out! Completely my fault for missing it.

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Dreaming of Death Note: 11 - Of Murder Over Coffee

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"I'm just heading into the bathroom for a moment." Agent Rei told Michiko as they stepped into the hallway outside the lecture hall later that day. Class had yet to start and they had arrived an hour early, straight from making her last deliveries and turning in the payment at the workplace. They'd had a pizza for lunch hours earlier, free of charge, and though agent Rei had enjoyed the food it wasn't sitting well with her insane bike riding habits. Not everyone was able to keep up with Michiko's usual breakneck pace.

"Fine, I'll wait here." Michiko settled into a seat on the opposite side of the room from a set of vending machines, eyeballing the candy bars across from her and wondering how much change she had in her pocket. She was tired, having spent the entire night awake she was pushing two days with barely any sleep now, and she wasn't really used to that anymore. A little something in her stomach would do her some good. There was a coffee machine there as well, and it looked quite inviting. All of a sudden, she craved caffeine.

"You had better. If you try to run again I'm gonna have to shoot you." this was said in a joking manner, but the narrowed gaze somewhat disproved it.

"You wouldn't!" she sounded scandalized, pressing a palm to her chest as if it hurt.

"Technically you're supposed to go in with me."

"You need me to hold your hand when you tinkle?" she asked dryly.

"Very funny."

"Your bag, then?" said bag was unceremoniously tossed at Michiko's face. She caught it easily. She shuffled the smaller tote bag under her arm and set her own backpack on the floor under the chair beside her.

The moment the door closed behind Agent Rei, Hideo fell into place next to Michiko, right in the seat over the backpack. Having vaulted over the back of the foam cushioned seat, he plopped himself down beside her with a smile. The serious tone of his voice was at odds with his happy visage, "We need to talk." Yet again, the boy took Shikako by surprise. She could not sense him, even now. She looked him over, wondering what it was about him that just didn't ping on her radar. Other than him, the two of them were alone in the room, and the halls were empty as they had arrived during regular class hours.

"That's never good. Ok, I think I can take it. I know, it just didn't work out between us. I'm a big girl, I can take a heartbreak. Now go break someone else's heart, please." She fished into her pocket to check how much change she had, intent on getting a coffee. Seeing she was short some change, Hideo handed her a handful from his own pocket, not even bothering to count it.

"You don't have to-" she started to object.

"Boyfriend privilege. I get to give my girlfriend gifts, that includes spare change." he shoved it into her hand, dropping it so she'd have to catch it, and by the time that happened they couldn't tell which coin belonged to who to begin with.

"Huh. Ok." this was said as they walked across the room to the vending machine. They had it make them some coffees as there was plenty of change to afford two of them.

Shikako looked up from her steaming cup of coffee, having been savoring just how good it smelled and how it really was a pick-me-up she needed at that moment. Hideo's words were rapid, and quiet, "So. You met Wendy last night. You said you'd help her. How you gonna go about that?"

She glanced around the room, checking that no one was listening. "You were watching me?"

"I always watch you. So does she. I don't like working for Dan though. Yeah, I'm one of them. He wanted me to keep an eye on you, watch your every move." This knowledge should have irritated her, should have pissed her off, but really after all that had been happening, it just made her feel more tired.

"Omniscient; My ass." she snorted into her cup. He snickered as he did the same. "What are you, the invisible boy?"

"Exactly. No one is really sure what Dan's powers are, because even when he's got other people telling him what's going on, he always seems prepared for it. Maybe he knows already? If that's the case, why have us look? Makes no sense. I can also see you when you're far away, by the way; If I think about you, I can kinda tell where you are. I don't think Dan can do that though, unless he borrows other people's powers, I mean. And yeah, I was behind Wendy when you gave her the memory card thingy. I can be invisible if I want to."

"You can be invisible and see me from far away? Ok, that's not creepy at all. Neat powers. Very X-Men." she said between piping hot sips before she realized she didn't know for certain if X-men was a thing in this world as she couldn't recall having seen it here. It reminded her of jutsus she knew, as well, and could easily see how it could be used to gather information. If Dan had someone like this kid working for him, why the hell did he send her after the information at Placebo Effect? There was no logic to this.

"Thanks. I hear you're good with shadows, and Wendy's a dreamer. We've all got our weird quirks." Ok, so he either ignored the X-Men reference, didn't get it, or knew what it was. That works.

"Yeah. So Dan knows what you know, because you know it? Or does Dan know about your ability?"

"Something like that, but it's only what we tell him. He doesn't know I can go invisible. I'm surprised you figured that out so fast! How did you know?"

"I could kinda tell someone was there, not who or where though, when Wendy was looking around last night but only because of her behavior." she shared, "It had to have been you. You suddenly appeared out of nowhere to jump the guy outside my house. You weren't behind me, but you clearly followed me. Also, you suddenly appeared behind me just now. I can't tell when you're there, for sure."

"Hey, you're pretty observant. You can tell where people are, too? That's awesome, we're like two peas in a pod! Yeah. And, about Dan, we've tried it. I mean we withheld something important that happened once: As in we did not tell him about something that happened on a job we did for him, and tried to see if he knew about it. There was someone we were supposed to investigate, and it turned out to be two people instead of one. The one we told him about? Vanished. The other is still trucking. He only knew what we told him, since he never seemed to look into it. If we go there knowing we're not gonna tell him something, he's not prepared for it. If we go there knowing we're gonna tell him something, he already knows. Like he knew what we had planned. But even then, it's like, why bother asking? Because he already seems to know. He either likes fucking with people's heads or-"

"Or there's more to it." he nodded at her addition. "And why send people to investigate?"

"Yeah. The fact that you can get into the building without anyone knowing how you do it really rankles his nerves. Makes him paranoid if his ranting is a clue, according to Wendy. Man, he acts like he's heaven on earth, but most people hate his guts." he smirked. "It's his holier-than-thou attitude."

 _'He's probably able to see the future, like I thought. He knew I would be there, because of that. No surprise, really. He sees it ahead of time, so knows what people will say, but only after he sets up the situation for them to say it.'_ she thought while taking a sip of her drink, _'But it's limited, isn't it? Or else he could simply think of what he wants to happen and see what would happen because of that intent alone.'_

"He sees the future, just before it happens. He doesn't read your mind, has no idea what you're thinking, or he'd know my trick with the building. You said it yourself, if you intend to never tell him then he'll never know."

"You mean... then that's why he wants us to look? Because if we do, he knows we'll tell him what we found?" He blinked.

"That's what I figure."

"Crap on toast. He's got a small army, all out doing things he wants, and reporting to him. I don't know how to act around him anymore."

 _'Unless you're actually acting around ME.'_

She silently absorbed that, then something else occurred to her, "So the whole girlfriend-boyfriend thing? That was an act?"

"Eh...heh. If you want it to be." He smiled at her huff of irritation, "Yeah, you're not taking that seriously, are you?" he asked, sounding hopeful. She paused and considered his saddened expression but he shifted the mood when he suddenly broke out into a shit-eating grin.

"I was trying to shoot you down, if you haven't noticed." she said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"I got shot. I healed. I'm resilient. I can take a bullet to the heart. Come at me, yo!" in a stage whisper, he added, " _Your aim sucks._ "

"Well... your boyfriend act saved my ass last night, so thanks. I dodged that one. The investigators think I snuck out to meet you instead of Dan. I don't want them knowing about psychics, period. It doesn't seem like that will be very easy, if Kira is one, though."

"Yeah, I figured. Dan said the agents are after Kira? You gonna let them get Kira? Or are you gonna protect Kira? Where do you stand on that?"

"You ask that as if I know who Kira is. I don't." she stated. He gave her a considering glance.

"Oh, right. Well. Anyways. You should know what your family is up to, you know. What kind of sister are you, huh?" he prodded, poking her in the arm with the hand holding the coffee cup. His was still mostly full and sloshed against the lid.

"The kind who doesn't think that Light has anything to do with this." she said in an adamant tone. She'd already worked her way through half the cup.

He waited a beat, "Well, that's en- _light-_ ening." He playfully blinked at her as she eyed him incredulously. He then hastily added, "Sorry, I've been sitting on that one for a while. Had to get it out. That was my only opportunity. Won't happen again. I hate to make light of important things." his expression turned serious, the corners of his mouth straightening in a grim line hiding his continued mirth.

"Was that a... nevermind." She huffed in a scoffing half-laugh. Her brother got that a lot with a strange name like that. "Are you going to help me with that? From the way you talk, you sound certain you know."

He didn't ignore her question, but countered it with, "Are you going to help Wendy? She wants out, so do I. Problem is, Dan would know where to find us, and how, if we were to just take off on our own. We've been trying to figure out what to do for a while now. If we had Kira backing us..."

The stubbornness kicked in again, "What are you even going on about? I don't know Kira."

 _'I have no proof, only hearsay.'_

"If Kira could take out Dan, we'd be home-free."

"You're talking about killing him? There's easier ways to go about it. Not saying it can't be done though, what of his unknown network? Taking down the leader doesn't guarantee your safety if he's got minions in hiding that will want revenge. If you just want to get away, if you need a place, and I mean right now as in _today_ , I know some people that would help. They'd take you two in."

"What about three of us? I have a little sister, named Mariko. I want her safe, too." Hideo said quickly, the hopeful sound in his voice was not misheard. It was strange how he wasn't afraid to share her name.

"They would take her in too, if I asked. That shouldn't be a problem." she assured him.

"Dan would notice if I turned and ran, but Mariko might be able to go without being seen so easily. See, he knows about my family ties, but he doesn't know she's also psychic. The strange thing about psychics is there's usually only one in a family." He stopped to let her assimilate that knowledge, since her slightly agape expression told him she had no idea about that little tidbit. There was no point in hiding the surprise.

 _'Huh, that's new. That also makes absolutely no intuitive sense.'_

Hideo continued when she motioned for him to keep talking, lifting her coffee cup in his direction, "He knew about me, so dismissed her as a possibility. She's avoided his notice. Kinda like how Kira did, too. He noticed you, and not Kira. You know, when he notices you... that he realizes you've turned on him... if you run... you cease to exist?"

She nodded, "Wendy mentioned it, but is it really that bad?"

"There's no bodies. They're just gone. We can't explain it, either. If we knew, we might have a better plan, but as it is..."

"That's very peculiar." she pondered what it could mean. Perhaps there was a psychic who could vaporize matter?

Agent Rei came out of the bathroom, seeing Hideo sitting beside Michiko as they sipped their hot drinks, chatting in hushed tones, heads leaned close together. She raised her brows then turned in mid-stride and headed to the coffee machine herself. She could give them a moment, she supposed.

From down the hallway, Shikako could hear Light's laughter echo. He was approaching, with a very pretty dark haired girl at his side, and his guard close behind him. They were chatting amicably, smiling at one another, while Agent Sora scowled behind him. She was getting used to seeing that man frown, as it seemed to be his perpetual state as of late.

The agent was the first to speak when Light's small group caught up to them, "You again?" He stared down at Hideo as if he just found a dust bunny under his bed.

"So what, jerkface?" Hideo grumbled, eyeballing the agent past the lid of his coffee. "You're still on a date with Light?" At this question the girl with Light began to smirk, then quietly giggle, clutching her backpack to her chest, then trying to hide her face behind her palm when she noticed Light watching her.

"Ah, I swear, it's nothing!" Light corrected, looking frantically back and forth between Hideo and the girl he'd been talking to. "It's just a joke, Takada! Honest!"

"I know. I heard the rumors, that's why I'm laughing!" she smirked at the look on his face. "I'm not taking this kid seriously, Light."

Hideo made a strangled sound in his throat, "Kid? I'm older than you!"

"I doubt that, by your behavior, though it is possible, I suppose." she nodded as the laughter faded into a soft smile.

"I can act any way I want to. That doesn't change my physical age." Hideo had been holding his drink to his mouth when he grit his teeth, biting the lid of his coffee cup, crunching the plastic loudly.

"No, but it's quite a telling reflection on your mental maturity." she countered with an amused smile.

Light let out a small sigh and, upon seeing the coffee in their hands, shrugged then turned to get himself one as well. Sora, seeing Rei leaning against the wall beside the machine, also headed in that direction. Hideo and Takada continued to argue among themselves quietly over the virtues of maturity and age until Light returned with a coffee for himself and his friend, who accepted it with a raised brow and a surprised smile, not missing a beat in her argument. Meanwhile, Michiko quietly sipped her drink until it was gone, savoring the last dregs in the bottom.

Light took the empty seat next to his sister as the others continued to chat in the lull between class periods. They had an hour before the next class would begin, and they both were signed up for it. It was a basic required credit course, so they couldn't avoid taking it, and signed up simultaneously so they could share course materials to save a bunch of money on the books. The two of them were relatively alone, considering everyone else was enough of a distance away to not be able to hear what she quietly asked him, "Light, tell me honestly, I won't judge. Are you Kira?"

The boy beside her paused in his motion to drink, then looked out of the corner of his eye at his older sister. He put his cup to his lips and took a long sip, then slowly exhaled. The heat on his breath from the hot beverage caused a swirling steam in the cool air, even indoors. He turned to look at her properly, having gathered his thoughts, his face impassive, "Sis, why do you ask that? You know I'm not an evil person! Why would you even think such a thing? No, I'm not Kira. And if I were, I would fully expect you to judge, as would I, myself."

His gaze hardened, and he appeared to not be seeing her, looking somewhere over her shoulder. "Kira is a criminal that dad is trying to track down. I will help him to do so, someday. Well, maybe not Kira himself if the criminal is caught before then, but definitely criminals like him. I'm going to be a detective, after all. I can't be committing crimes, when I'm going to be going out and solving them. That's just preposterous!" There was a certainty and conviction in his voice, which she had often heard before when he was talking about something he was passionate about. His face gave nothing away; if he told a lie, she couldn't see it.

Hideo jumped up from where he was leaning on the wall, shaking his empty coffee cup in Takada's face, while pointing a finger dangerously close to her nose, "How dare you call me that! Take it back! Light, your girlfriend is rude!" Hideo spun to face the brown haired boy, glaring once more, though his venom was not directed at Light.

"I'm not Light's girlfriend, just an acquaintance. Michiko, dear, your boyfriend is also rude," Takada informed her, her gaze never leaving Hideo. She had one arm holding an elbow, the other hand holding her own coffee cup out of his spontaneous reach. Her bag was slung over her shoulder. "I'd suggest looking for a new one, unless you're into hopeless idiots."

"Take it back!"

Light and Michiko looked each other in the eye, neither one willing to deal with this. Glancing at their respective 'dates', they rolled their eyes and went back to ignoring them. Seeing that no help was forthcoming, the two turned back to each other, rapidly bickering again.

"Sorry, I just had to hear what you would say." Shikako had been watching Light's even gaze closely as he'd spoken, trying to see any verbal or physical tics to tell her if he could be lying. She honestly hadn't seen any, and she wasn't letting herself be tricked by emotional bias in observing his reactions. He was either a perfect liar and wasn't giving anything away, or he was innocent. She wanted to believe the latter to be true. Maybe it was too easy to convince herself of this possibility due to what she wanted, but she had taken that into account when watching. She had to believe in her own perceptions, after all. She could see nothing fake or hidden, not in his mannerisms, nor his actions, or his voice; nothing.

She knew what to look for. It's that awareness of this world and the different mind set she herself held claim to, that would allow her to see such a person standing out sharply in contrast to what is acceptable. It simply wasn't present. It's the difference between knowing a seasoned S-Rank missing-nin who has experience and is expected to do so can kill an opponent easily compared to even thinking that an innocent civilian would be seriously considered as a suspect in a mass murderer case or suspected of _any_ murder, when comparing someone like Kira to her brother. Not impossible, not improbable, but it is jarring, highlighting two separate worlds and mentalities as one does not logically fit into another. Is her little brother a cold blooded mass murderer named Kira, slowly taking over the world one heart attack at a time? Light's publicly portrayed image is not that of a killer, not even the type that hides it well, and Shikako was used to walking hand in hand with them. Anyone arguing that Light is Kira makes her question her perceptions because everything about him that she can see is not what others claim to be, and she knows what to look for. How can they be so certain, when she has seen nothing to prove it or even hint at it?

"You should have more faith in me, Michiko." He chided, softly adding, "I would have faith in you, you know." She nodded, not entirely convinced now that everyone was against him. Were they seeing something she was blind to? How?

He went back to nursing his coffee, a little slower this time. There had been nothing in his behavior to indicate guilt in the slightest. It was frustrating, because she didn't know how to approach the issue, and the truth of the matter would determine her future course of action.

She looked up trying to find a trash bin to deposit her cardboard coffee cup in, to discover Agent Sora and Agent Rei standing shoulder to shoulder, arms touching at the elbow as they were both identically crossed over their chests, even holding their drinks in the same hands. They mirrored each other's poses, leaning against the wall like two immobile statues watching them both intently. They really were a pair. With her luck they could read lips, not that it was hurting anything at the moment. Let them listen; There was nothing going on here, just a sister and a brother trying to have a heart-to-heart about murder over coffee.

Speaking of which, "Hey, that's mine!" Light protested as she snagged his right out of his hand to steal one last sip.

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When Michiko got home, Light and Sora headed to his room so Light could put his things away and work for a while on the homework he'd picked up from his morning class. The evening class they'd shared hadn't assigned any, thankfully. There usually wasn't homework except for assignments to turn in at the end of the week. She headed into the bathroom and locked the door behind her.

Fishing into her pocket, she pulled out the little yellow envelope she'd received as a tip while delivering the pizzas that day. She opened it to find a pile of cash that could cover her next four terms expenses completely. Three paper bills on the top stood out like a sore thumb because they were American one dollar bills. Inspecting them closely, she saw tiny messages inscribed in pencil on the edges.

 **'There are multiple Kiras.'** Ok, she could work with that. So Kira is a group of people. Somehow that isn't surprising. They would simply have to broaden their search parameters, rather than looking for an individual, it would be an organization, perhaps. If there is something big to cover up, a larger group of people with a support structure would have an easier time of it.

 **'The second Kira will see you soon. You have already met the first of the Kiras in person.'** Shit, this wasn't looking good for Light, now. If there was any truth to that, then perhaps all of Ryuzaki's evidence did have something to do with her brother after all. But what is that about a second Kira 'seeing' her 'soon'? That sounded rather ominous. And less like an organization.

 _'Damn Dan and his vague games. He very well could have given a name or two.'_ On one hand, she wouldn't have wanted to believe it if it had outright said that Light was Kira, because that would upend all of her careful observations and leave her wondering where she messed up, but on the other... It was more than what she'd started with, at least.

If he truly was Kira she was certain she could handle the situation, she just had to know how to approach it. That was really what she was after. That's why it wasn't truly in her favor to let the investigation team discover the truth first, if it was someone in her family involved. She would deal with it herself.

There was one more paper bill behind this one. She slipped it out and searched for the message. **'Sticks and stones will break your bones and words will always kill you.'** Now, that was something she didn't know. Kira's weapon to kill is a word? Something verbal, something spoken? Something written? A hand sign? The fact that fuinjutsu doesn't work in this world, but psychics have the ability to influence or interact with the world around them using their powers made her think that perhaps there was more weight to the verbal use of a weapon, but she didn't discount the possibility of it being conveyed otherwise. The Sound Ninjas came to mind, with how they would infuse the sounds with chakra and use that as a weapon in battle. A sound to cause a heart attack in that way, didn't seem too far fetched as far as paranormal and supernatural things were concerned. She had seen and experienced much stranger phenomenon in her many lives. She now had an idea of what to look for, at least.

She heard her mother calling everyone downstairs for dinner. She switched the light off and shoved the money, envelope and all, into her pants pocket. Peeking out the crack in the bathroom door, which would be dark and not draw attention, she saw Light and Sora followed by Rei who was talking with Sayu quietly. Sayu no longer had rings around her eyes, as she had the last time Michiko had seen her, and it appeared that going out to town for the day had done the girl some much needed good. She was even talking animatedly to the agent about something they had seen while she and her mother were shopping. It made Michiko feel better, and put her worried mind at ease to know that her sister was improving, even if it was slowly. The tragedy had hit her extremely hard. She watched as the four of them walked past the bathroom door, ignoring it completely as they headed downstairs at the call of food. A shiver ran up Shikako's spine as that strangely cold chill crept into the room once more. She hadn't felt it all day, and yet, there it was again.

The moment they were downstairs, she hurried into Light's room. The chill in the air seemed to follow her. He'd left the light on and the door was slightly ajar.

A hurried glance and she couldn't tell if anything had been moved recently as there was no dust anywhere, or Light was obsessed with cleaning. She didn't often spend time in here, so she wasn't that familiar with things and where they belonged, but Light was a generally neat and tidy individual, and kept everything just in its place. Sora's sleeping bag was even rolled up and stored safely out of the way against the wall with the man's duffel bag. For all she knew he was probably a neat freak as well. A fast search of the room led her to nothing. There was no sign of anything hidden that she could see with her eyes alone. She even searched in the agent's bag, and found a lighter, and a spare gun tucked into the inner pouch. He only had one spare clip, she noted. She carefully avoided touching them.

She found nothing out of place, and nothing of interest in her fast intrusion into her brother's things, searching through anything that could be opened or wasn't nailed down.

Words. Books. Papers. Things that convey a message.

There was nothing to hint at murder or death in any way. She couldn't check the CDs and DVDs but she doubted those would be used for killing in any way. Unless sounds were involved, and she couldn't see how a small thing like that would influence people on the other side of the world without complicated machinery or another conduit of some sort.

She found plenty of homework assignments, completed and already graded, tucked away in folders on a shelf as materials to be referenced when studying. There were even a few questionable magazines hidden in what used to be an encyclopedia book cover that put Icha Icha to shame at one point. ' _Light is a little pervert! Boys will be boys, I suppose.'_

As she was reaching to pull open a desk drawer, Light's bedroom door squeaked on its hinges as it was slowly opened. She spun in place to face the opening door, having sensed no one approaching.

There was no one there. The room was oddly cold.

It must have just swung on its hinges with a draft, since she had slightly left it ajar so as to avoid making noise, and so it would look like she hadn't entered if someone decided to come back upstairs to the bathroom. She could feel her family was downstairs, alongside the agents, already spread around the kitchen, probably grabbing utensils and plates and preparing to set the table.

Turning back to the desk, she ignored the strange feeling and pulled the leftmost drawer out, and searched the contents. Most people would think to hide their things in a desk, and it was a common occurrence to modify one to hide their possessions in plain sight. She searched for tells of this. She searched the next drawer down, also nothing. Then she reached the middle drawer, also a dead end. There was a drawer with a key stuck in it. That was... odd.

She pulled it open, and wondered why Light would leave the key in the lock, especially since there was a diary within. Well, if anything had words in it, it would be that. Then again, he had just left the room in a hurry, so he probably forgot to put the key away. She glanced through it, flipping the pages and letting her eyes scan the contents briefly, but saw nothing of interest. There wasn't even an entry for when Sayu's friends were injured and killed. In fact, it seemed as if he'd stopped using it that very day, as there were no further entries in the diary. She assumed it must have been too depressing to continue writing after that. It was the only thing in the deep drawer, so she returned it and closed it again. She looked under the desk, and on the bottom sides of the drawers as well, and there was nothing hidden or strange looking there.

Once she was done with the desk, she checked the book shelves and similarly found nothing of note. Nothing in, on, or under the bed, either. The closet was locked, but she picked the lock with a single metal pin. Only clothes, and a few electronics on the floor in neat stacks. She checked the walls and back of the closet for any hidden compartments, but there was no oddities there either.

She had taken too long, when she heard her mother call for her, again. She left the room, making certain that nothing appeared disturbed, being sure to leave the light on and door just barely ajar as Light had. Heading down to dinner, she paused at the top of the staircase when she felt the temperature drop in the hall. Rubbing her arms at the goose flesh that suddenly crawled up her elbows, she looked back at the open door, and wondered why she felt like the walls had eyes.

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 **BONUS-** **Flashback Omake from ' _Nukka of Avatar_ '**

This was written as I was writing this chapter, and I don't even know why I really wanted to include it. I ended up posting it on the forum, but figured there's no harm in putting it here as this story references her past life as Nukka in Avatar, and unfortunately, that past life only exists as forum posts! If I write any more of these (no guarantee on that, as it only happens as inspiration strikes,) I might tack them on to the bottom of a chapter but they'll probably have no real relevance to the plot and events in the Death Note fic as is. And probably no continuity at all. It's just for fun or flavor. I still don't know if someone from the forum is going to write the story of Nukka or not so don't expect that anything I write of Nukka would end up being part of it, though if they want to use this it's cool. It's just my imagination taking off on it's own for a little vacation.

As posted on the forum- Yeah I just copy-pasted what I put there:

(This may have been influenced by **P.A.W.07** 's ' _Reluctant Hero'_ chapter 37 update. Love that story, by the way. Read it if you're a fan of well written and In-character AU Avatar fics in which Zuko is the Avatar.)

SO- a random ficlet for "Nukka".

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"We should head out to the island on the west side, according to the map. Also, the locals I heard from said there's a village there where we can get more food and supplies." Katara informed them for what felt like the fifteenth time. Sokka narrowed his eyes at her, puffing out his cheeks. He had thus far made his disagreement known just as many times.

"No, no, we should go to that forest there." He emphasized the point by pointing to it on the map his sister was holding up between them, of which Aang was helpfully also holding up one end, so as not to lose it in the wind blowing over Appa's back as they flew. "We can hunt for our food, like _Men_. Like _Manly Men_. Like _Manly Hunting Men_ should. Yes. I will get us some _Meat_. I am the resident _Manly Hunting Man_. You ladies can take a breather, find some rabbit-weasel food for Aang." Nukka could hear the qualifier in that title, or titles as the case may be, as Sokka shouted his opinion to be heard over their sister's idea. Aang looked up from the map, wondering why they would feed him rabbit-weasel food, then shrugged it off as one of Sokka's odd quirks. It probably didn't taste bad, if rabbit-weasels liked it. He was probably onto something.

Katara glared at her obnoxious brother in turn, crossing her arms over her chest as she did so. She didn't seem to want to waste time hunting when food could be easily obtained, especially after Nukka had gotten them that amazing stash of pirate gold she'd found on that last island they randomly stopped at.

Granted, it was really Toph that found it, but no one was really counting that since the blind girl hadn't noticed what she had been sitting on. Since she found it by leaning against a tree, losing her footing, then falling into a ravine, it was a rather interesting adventure. Nukka had climbed down to help untangle her from the vines that caught her and snagged her on the way down, and her weight had disturbed the precariously perched rocks on the ravine wall, pulling at them until boulders and logs were falling alongside her. She discovered Toph was almost sitting on a small wooden chest of pirate treasure, at the very bottom where everything had finally settled.

"Bingo!" she'd said upon seeing the glint of gold within the half-opened chest that Toph's fall had unearthed. No one quite knew what that meant, but upon seeing the treasure and realizing what it was, they didn't think on it for too long. They grabbed the chest, and made their way off the island faster than you can say 'kink-horned-rhinocerous-ardvark'. (Nothing moves faster than an angry kink-horned-rhinocerous-ardvark. Nothing. Especially if you accidentally step on its eggs.)

They had plenty of money to spend, so Katara argued they should get what they needed! She'd been arguing that point for the past hour. Sokka continuously shot her down. They'd been fighting over it so much it had given Nukka a rather severe headache. The noise of the bickering teens behind Nukka was making her migraine even worse. The more Sokka raised his voice to impose his opinion on the others the more she wanted to stuff a pillow in her ears.

Finally having enough, Nukka shouted, "I swear, one more _peep_ out of any of you and I am **turning this flying-bison upside down**!" Nukka blurted that out in pure irritation. She didn't really mean it. Much.

Blessed silence descended upon the crew in Appa's saddle. Nukka enjoyed the sound and feel of the wind in her hair, knowing that they were all taking her seriously.

For about ten seconds.

Then the snickering started.

A certain bald-headed airbender was to blame.

It was also him that eventually... "Peep!"

"Oh, sweet-spirits, no." Sokka began to pray, clutching the edge of the saddle in preparation for their eventual free-falling demise. His other hand wrapped protectively around the bag containing the pirate gold, just in case.

She could hear the slight hint of panic in Katara's voice, "Sis, not all of us can fly! Remember, _we can't fly..._ " Did she really think that Nukka would... scratch that, _of course they did_. They believed her every word. She was always good for it, wasn't she?

"Miss Whispers, if you follow through on that I will end you. _I. Will. **End**. You._ " Toph's warning was spoken in the most serious of voices, loud, clear, and full of killing intent, as she slowly turned her head to face Nukka's direction. Not that killing intent actually existed in this world, but Nukka could just hear it laced in her tone. She was rather impressed.

"PEEP! PEEP! Please, let's do a loop-de-loop! A barrel roll! Appa! Let's go! PEEP! Spin in the air! Let's go- it will be FUN! Peeeep!" the hyper airbender began to bounce in his seat, with Momo chittering on his head, agitating the bison and making him growl. He shook the saddle, excitedly trying to get his bison to listen to him.

Appa knew better. Nukka had the reigns. His enormous eyes rolled up into his head as if trying to look at her, then he shook his head, blinked, and went back to flying forward while attempting to all appearances to try to ignore his airbending owner.

Nukka would do a face palm, but that would involve dropping the reigns and signaling the bison to land. Over the ocean. She was sorely tempted.

Sorely tempted.

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 **Author's Note** : The last chapter felt too long to post as it was, so this was the other half of what I had written already, which I expanded on. Sometimes I write fast, sometimes I'm a slowpoke. Editing takes longer. Speaking of slow poke, I'm seeing guest reviews dated from four days ago only just showing up today, what's up with that? Anyone else notice that on this site?

Since I'm only just seeing it now, in response to guest review from catgirl789:

I agree that the world they are in determines the actions they will take under certain circumstances, but the experiences that shape them also contribute, and this is one world after multiples that share the Naruto-verse's way of thinking because Avatar world is closer to Naruto-verse in that regard. I rewrote that chapter over 3 times, originally keeping the guard alive after he'd seen her but it only caused trouble for her down the line. She's not Naruto. She has dealt with minor mooks in a similar manner before. This was the only solution she had to that issue, and she'd long practiced it in multiple lifetimes. I put a lot of thought and planning into it as it serves that purpose, highlighting the differences. Alternatively, with Dan there was character incentive to keep him alive at the time- he could help her, he had a wide ranging and unknown network that knew of her but she hadn't figured them out yet, and he had his own reasons to not cause trouble for her with her and the others' 'psychic abilities' being useful to him. The guard had none of that going for him, and no one could pin it on her.

It wasn't that the guard had seen her face- it was that he had seen her powers. She had then fought him using the shadows with the knowledge she had no way of knowing when he woke while being shadow-possessed, as by then it was too late for him. It was the only way to guarantee he wouldn't out the supernatural side of the world which is something she and others had long tried to keep hidden in this lifetime and it was in her best interests to do so. Kira was already putting a monkey wrench in that plan, but no one knew how or that it was really a psychic phenomenon. Getting caught stealing from a drug company when she's already under investigation as the world's worst mass murderer is hardly something to be concerned with, in the big scheme of things. Trying to lock him in the bathroom was her way around killing him, and it didn't work but she did at least try first.

And to everyone- Thanks for the helpful writing advice! And, Happy Holidays as this is being posted on Christmas Eve!


	12. Chapter 12: Interference

Dreaming of Death Note: 12 - Interference

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 **Author's Note:** _Important for anyone who read chapter 11 on the day it was posted_ \- there were some cut and paste mistakes, my fault completely, as I was half asleep as I did it. Thank you to Redshirt Army for bringing that to my attention! I have gone back and corrected the missing conversation which happened just before Shikako/Michiko asked if Hideo was 'serious about the boyfriend/girlfriend thing'. It's almost a fourth of the way down the page. I was adding two files together and forgot to transfer that part over to the finished chapter! There were a few other things I didn't move into that chapter mistakenly, but I managed to fit them into this next part, so problem solved.

How come the ability to insert a horizontal line isn't always there in the tool bar when I initially copy-paste/upload the file? *sigh*

OH, it's there when I edit it in Doc Manager. *grin* (Here's where we put THE MORE YOU KNOW rainbow™)

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 **Dreaming of Death Note: 12 - Interference**

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It was just after sundown when Shikako went into the women's bathroom after class the next day. She had walked in, intending to use the stall closest to the door, when a hand suddenly reached out and grabbed her arm to stop her in place. Shocked, she turned her head to glare at him, realizing instantly who it probably was since she hadn't felt him there, but he'd been seen in class earlier. The room was empty aside from the two of them, though the boy was invisible. This not being able to sense him thing was becoming troublesome. His face materialized in front of her before the rest of him melted into sight like water trickling down his body as it suddenly became visible.

She shoved him back though he held on, and spoke in a hushed tone knowing Rei was outside the door, "If I'd truly been in an hurry I might have pissed myself from the startle you just gave me, popping out of the woodwork like that!" She was thinking darker thoughts, of all the ways she could have ended him, had she not have reacted better. This brought up memories of Kakashi and his damn marker, too.

"Sorry! Something came up. Wendy just called. Dan is doing something, and it's not good." his grip tightened, but it seemed to be out of stress.

"What is it this time?" Hideo reached for the door to the bathroom and locked it so that no one else could enter. Shikako tossed her bag on the floor, and turned her head to look Hideo in the eye. His eyes were red, like he'd been crying. She'd never seen him unhappy like that before. In fact, aside from the occasional bout of anger, he'd never had anything other than a positive or possibly over protective emotion portrayed on his lively face, that she had seen.

"The shit hit the fan, now that he has that data you got for him. Whatever the hell it is, it was exactly what he wanted. Wendy's crying, she called me a minute ago because two of our friends in America vanished when Dan went there. They're just gone. She can't even see any daydreams from them, just poof! She said that's what it's like when someone dies. They were like us, and wanted out. Dan got rid of them! If I'd have known that I wouldn't have let Wendy send it to him yesterday."

"I- I'm sorry, but that's not my fault."

' _Not directly, anyway.'_ She said, "I think I can help the three of you to hide, though you seem to be pretty good at doing that yourself." she said wryly, eyeing him up and down. "If you want. I did offer."

"I'm not worried about myself personally. I can handle it. There's others to be concerned for though, like Wendy and my sister." Hideo finally released his grip on her arm, voluntarily making some space between the two of them. "But if we go, and Dan knows stuff ahead of time, doesn't that mean he'll just know where we'll go? And what about the others that want out?"

"I doubt it. He seems to know only things that pertain to himself in the future. Think about it. He sends you out to investigate something, then has to hear your answer, but he already knows your answer when you come to tell him. He doesn't know how I get into the building, just that I will meet him there. If he knew how I got into the building, then that means he could look at my future, not just his. He can't see things that don't pertain to himself." she concluded.

Having said that, there was still a nagging sense of doubt in the back of her mind. She couldn't quite place it, until she realized something important: Dan gave her personal messages about meeting one of the Kiras in the future, and claimed she had already met one of them. But Dan wanting his people to find Kira means he doesn't know who Kira himself is. Did he already come into contact with another Kira? The message he gave her wasn't his own future, or even his own past, it was hers. Unless she meets this Kira in his presence, she wasn't certain how he could have come up with that information if he could only see his own future. So it must be something he'd known would happen, because he instigated it, or someone near him had.

Was she wrong about that? It contradicted what she'd just assured Hideo... but Dan's lack of knowledge about her means of climbing the walls to enter the building pointed to the fact he doesn't see everything. Maybe he was limited in how often or how much he could see? Or how far into the future? Maybe he only got bits and pieces?

There were too many unknown factors to be truly conclusive now. She would just have to consider the possibility that she was wrong and he could see more than she assumed, or had people in positions to make certain things happen. His questions on how she did it could very well have been a ruse. She didn't want to frighten Hideo, but he really had no other options at the moment.

He thought her words over and nodded, "Then we should be ok, if we go. But the thing is, will we be safe for long? Wendy told me her friend texted her before he vanished, saying Dan's going to reveal psychics to the world." He waited a beat, taking a deep breath, "Dan is going to have someone go on television and state that Kira is a psychic that is controlling the world.

"He's claiming that Kira is one of his people, though you can bet Dan himself won't make an appearance. He won't want his face seen, after L told everyone Kira needs a face an a name to kill. He's gonna say that anyone that defies his _Psychic Children_ will pay the consequences, through 'Kira's divine intervention'. We know it's not true because he's asked us to keep a look out to try to find Kira for him, not like we would. Since we've failed to get results he says this will draw Kira out. I don't know what to think now, Michiko!" Hideo pulled at his ponytail, agitation written across his very expressive face. "You've got to get Kira to help us! You two live together, so- so you can..."

 _'Oh, Light...'_

"And Dan's in America right now, on a so called business trip, so it's not like we can confront him in person and make him stop."

 _'Well, now I know what he was doing with that knowledge he has been hoarding. And any psychic not aligned with him will be hunted and alone. He's set it up so he has a secure safe zone for them, and once it's revealed that they exist publicly, they'll have no place to go but to him Unless we change that...'_

She began to think aloud, running her thoughts by Hideo, "He's going to reveal psychics. I didn't want that, didn't need the problems it can cause. None of us do. What is he playing at? It's one thing to have a secret power that no one knows of that you can use to get the upper hand one-on-one, it's another to have a potential army of people mobbing you. No, the entire world turning on you. Too many is too many, even unarmed opponents, no matter how skilled you are. If they want to attack they'd take out a psychic easy. Someone like Wendy wouldn't stand a chance. Most psychics are like Wendy, right? Not something you can use to fight and defend yourself with, or run and hide the way you can." at this question, Hideo solemnly nodded his agreement.

"And the governments would be quick to get involved, probably in a bad way if they're seen as a threat with the Kira angle. That's never 'unarmed' that's 'armed to the teeth'. We're not bullet proof. We really don't need this to be a manhunt. Wait until religious groups get wind of this," they both grimaced. That could go both ways to the extreme, either the groups would embrace psychics, maybe even offer them protection, or it would be a serious witch hunt and they'd kill them on sight. It could be divided, even within the same religion, based on individual perceptions.

Hideo said, "Dan's already given his people their instructions; Even I'm supposed to help. It's happening whether we want it to or not. He wants me to watch the police and L for their reactions, and to tell him if they find Kira as a result. He told me through a text to 'follow Michiko and spy on L' can you believe that?"

 _'And if you really are still working for Dan, I guess I'd better keep an eye on you. The enemy you know is better left closer... is it wise to bring him with me? Hell, why not.'_

"Of course I can believe that. You know people can trace texts, right? Or do you have one of those burn phones?"

"He's got some guy that can take our network off the grid somehow, so our communications are invisible, if it's the phones he assigned us. I never use that one, though. I dunno how it works," he shook his head. "And that tech guy has nothing to do with us, so he'll keep doing what Dan wants, all loyal to the cause and whatnot. I wouldn't trust any phone he gave me. I left it at home. The one I've been using is one I bought with cash at the mall."

"Right. Ugh, every time I think I can focus on one problem another crops up. I'm going to call Saito, he's an old friend of mine. He can help you three to vanish for a while." she suggested, pulling out her secret cell phone. (Yes, she's one to talk, but no one knew she had this one...) She'd done her best to secure this phone from prying eyes, but she often replaced it. When she dialed Saito's number, he answered on the third ring. She got directly to the problem, because Saito liked to get to business fast since his time was valuable, "I need a place for three people to hide out, please help?"

"Of course, sensei!" Saito said, calling her by the title he'd assigned to her back in school when she used to teach him Shogi. He was the boy who had moved on to go to the professional shogi school when he was barely in elementary classes. One of Light's classmates, just slightly older than him. Wavy brown hair, faintly tanned skin, piercing dark blue eyes, and a serious, studious disposition hid a sharp mind and focus that had knocked men four times his age out of the rankings many times. Even without his family's influence and money, he was going places. She was quite proud of him, even if he did choose an odd occupation. She couldn't really blame him though. She knew if Shikamaru could have earned a living playing Shogi the way that this boy already was, he might have done so, all while complaining about how troublesome having to play teaching games always was.

She had stayed in contact with all of her 'students' and had all of their phone numbers memorized. She had had the opportunity to go to a school in a well-off area, to her advantage, and there were many children there from families that had connections. She had made acquaintances of all of them, from every school year. This boy was the son of the very wealthy owner of a large and profitable hotel chain, and his parents had gifted to him his own section of several of their hotels for his personal use. He usually rented them out to wealthy customers and used the money to pay for his professional shogi education and other hobbies. His closest friends were always welcome to use rooms that Saito owned and rented out himself, free of charge to his friends. If Shikako needed a place for someone, it was readily available in just about any city in Japan, and that was probably the most convenient thing she'd gained from her regular childhood shogi classes to date.

"You'll be safe. Just don't ever tell anyone where you'll be. Here, talk to Saito." She handed the phone, in its dull dark blue protective case, to Hideo who took it with a hopeful look. Once they had finished their conversation, Hideo contacted Wendy to give her instructions to take his sister to the safe house, or safe hotel, as the case was. Shikako mulled over the details and came to a conclusion before the phone was handed back to her.

It grated on her that she felt she had to reveal what she was trying to hide, and it seemed like such a waste. Now she kinda felt bad about having killed that security guard, but there was nothing for it. It was a necessity at the time. She shouldn't dwell on things she knew for a fact she couldn't change. It just showed how things, and priorities, were so easily altered. If she didn't adjust to her new surroundings and use the flow rather than moving against it, it could take her down with it.

That was a prominent airbender philosophy, now that she remembered it. They moved with the wind and like the wind. With that way of thinking, they could tear down mountains, one grain of sand or one massive boulder at a time. What did it mean then, that she found she needed to embrace that free flowing way of being, when all along she was always more akin to the stubborn earth and the solid, strong, boulders? She mentally snorted at the comparison. She could always be the tornado. More potential for destruction. That felt superior, for some reason, even if it was all in her head.

"We didn't want this, but it's not the end of the world. We can make the first move, and cut him off before he gets the word out. One of his people will do it regardless, so if we have to reveal the supernatural side to the world, we'll do so under our terms. I have an idea, and I have connections that can make it happen." Shikako stated. She placed a hand on Hideo's shoulder and asked, "Can you do something for me?" she hastily conveyed to him her plan. Hideo nodded, smiling brightly.

Someone beat on the bathroom door, yelling that they needed to get in. With a sheepish grin, Hideo moved one of the garbage cans to make space in the very corner, then pulled it in front of himself, subtly telling Michiko that he wasn't hanging out just outside the stall doors and was behaving himself as he disappeared from sight with a formal looking salute. The only way out of that tiny corner was if the garbage can moved, and it would have been heard. She unlocked the door and someone ran in, to disappear into a stall. Michiko headed into one as well since Rei came in during this time to inquire whether Michiko was all right, and was informed that Michiko had a stomach ache, and so the agent would have to wait. Rei sighed and headed back outside. She really was not very good at this 'watch her every move' job, but Shikako wasn't going to point that out to her. She hadn't even asked about the locked door, which made her wonder how much the agent might have overheard.

After the other women left Hideo reappeared, scrunched in the corner of the room. He shoved the can out of the corner as she locked the door once more. "Does no one ever wash their hands in here?" He looked around the room in disgust, then washed the trash bin off his hands. Michiko pointedly washed her own, then flicked the water in his face.

She wadded up a paper towel and bounced it off of Hideo's head, for it to land all the way across the room in the trash bin he'd just relocated, "Hey! Oh, good toss."

She mused that if the world was going to learn about psychics, she'd be damned if she let Dan call the shots. She was going to out them herself, under her terms. Dan would not be using Kira's name to control the world. She wouldn't allow him that privilege.

If she aired it on even just one station, it would end up on the internet, and as it gained interest it would migrate to the other networks shortly. That was how the information network tended to spread itself around, social media at its finest. She was going to cut Dan and his threats out of the initial message, and then prevent him from making those threats and having them taken seriously, by disproving them before they could be made. It did have the added bonus of possibly drawing one of the Kiras out, but at least it wouldn't be on Dan's side. Provided he didn't have one already.

She reasoned that this would work if she could counter it before the man threatened anything. If his message got out first, then fear of Kira through this group's influence would prevent anyone from believing anything else. She had no doubt that Dan had a plan to make it look like Kira was involved, using psychics or other means. If there was a specific assurance that Kira was not involved with this psychic group first then people would remember that upon hearing a threat, and know someone was actively investigating it at the very least. There would be believers in Dan's threat, but it would plant the necessary seed of doubt. The timing of the assurance would hint that they were prepared for the threat, when the message from Dan finally gets delivered. They had no way of stopping the delivery, as Dan had too many unknown followers to stop them all, so lessening its impact was more important.

It still wouldn't stop Kira from deciding to side with him though, so she'd have to include incentive in the message somehow. She could turn Kira or one of the Kiras against Dan, and have them target one another. But how? Tell Kira how this organization wanted to use him? No, that would make the world see that the psychics are trying to manipulate not just Kira, but anyone they want to use, and paint them in a negative light. She had to go about it more delicately than that. She wondered if she could have L do it, then L would take the blame instead of psychics at large.

Maybe paint them as a force to control or counter Kira? Then people might fear them, but also respect them. That would still make them seem dangerous, though. Would it defeat the purpose? She supposed it was no more so than saying that soldiers go out to fight wars, but you only need fear the ones that belong to your enemies. With the psychics, it could be anyone. She had to make them appear to be the good guys, and Kira was clearly the villain.

Having foreknowledge of a psychic threat might start government conspiracy theories but that was the least of her concerns. Even if people thought it a joke, it would still get the message out there. Anyone who was a psychic, and was hiding it, would know the truth. What if she could get them to side with her instead? She just had to get the message out there before Dan could. She pulled out her phone once more and dialed a number from her memory...

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...The phone rang six times before it was answered, "Whoizzit?" the young woman's voice on the end of the line sleepily slurred her words then yawned. Yuko had been taking a nap in the back of the large camping trailer which she occasionally had to share with the other stars of the seasonal film. The young actress had just finished recording the final scene for the new romantic comedy that had a Christmas theme, which had unexpectedly gone on all night since someone kept bungling their lines. (No one could blame that on Yuko! Hah! Hers were perfect every time, even the crying scene.)

The last take had had a guest appearance by an up and coming actress and singer in it, and she'd even gotten an autograph from the starlet! Not that she was that pumped about it though, considering she herself could act better, she was certain. She was still annoyed that she got passed up for the lead romantic role in favor of being the 'klutzy sidekick best friend' role instead. The real klutz was the blonde boy she was paired with that kept forgetting the English words he was supposed to say and pronouncing them in such a garbled manner that they had to do a voice over in the end.

The young brown haired actress with the wide green eyes that she was famous for in mascara commercials was dead tired, but her phone was always needing to be answered. She didn't dare let it go to voice mail, just in case it was her manager, or producer, or even worse, her slave-driver mom who owned shares at the Sakura network and insisted that her 'daughter become a rising star'. She'd even been denied the chance to go to college, so that she could begin her acting career instead. She disliked that at first, until she got sight of her first paycheck from Shiseido's local advertising branch. Having connections in the industry had landed her better roles, and she was living it up.

She held the phone to her ear, wincing at the loudness of the voice on the other end, knowing that it was just her phone pumped up to its loudest volume causing the discomfort, rather than the volume of the person talking to her, "Hey, Yuko! It's your shogi sensei! Been a while. I need some help though, care to change the world?"

"Change... the world?" The voice perked up, as this caught the girl's attention. Within a heartbeat, she responded, "I'm in." She switched it to speaker phone, and leaned back against her headboard, listening to the phone she sat on the small table next to her travel bed.

"We need something... special... to show on television. You're my best bet of getting it seen, and quickly."

"What do you need, Michiko-sensei?"

"Well, first, you have relatives in the media industry in America, right?"

"Sure, my aunt helps her husband's family run a major network over there. We know all kinds of movie stars, major news anchors, politicians, hey, guess whose autograph I just got! I met Mis-" Shikako interrupted her gloating, as the girl tended to like to show off. Knowing she needed to stop her before she got going, she quickly jumped in with, "Can we do something, real fast? Get something shown on television?"

"-a! It's..." The other girl didn't sound so certain now, her words slowing, forgetting what she had wanted to say in her tired state, "It's not that easy, sensei. They have to do that months or weeks in advance, unless it's a major news broadcast happening live."

"Make it one of those, then. This is news. We have a way to catch Kira, that mass murderer everyone's scared of, and I'd like your help with it. But first we have to lay a trap for him, on the television in and outside of Japan." Shikako had lied, knowing that this was the best way to get to Dan at the moment to foil his plan, without having to explain about Dan to everyone she wanted to convince. Using Kira as motivation was more immediate and would get her better results. Dan was an unknown. Since he was planning on using the networks himself tomorrow, she was going to take it before he could. She explained her plan to the girl.

"If I tell my aunt that, she'd salivate over the chance to air it!" Yuko sat up, more awake now. She stared blearily at the harsh brightness of the phone in the dark, wondering at this possibility.

"Tell her it will up her network's ratings. If you could get your mom whose working at Sakura TV, to do the same thing there, it would help." her sensei suggested.

"Hah! That would do it. They'd flip over it." Shikako gave the girl the details, then gave the phone to Hideo to have him give her the numbers of some of his friends that were still alive and on board with the 'Anti-Dan Plan' so they could send her some videos of their psychic powers in action for the broadcast. Hideo had explained that those were the very same videos Dan wanted them to send to him, for his broadcast, actually. It was better if they used them first, so it looked like it was their own source material.

"So, we have to show that there are psychics in the world but they're harmless, and Kira isn't working with the psychics? I have the video links you've mailed to my phone, now."

"We need it done fast, tonight. We're counting on you!" Yuko balked at the time sensitive nature, not certain how fast she could get her people in America on board. They had a matter of hours to work with, really. Her connections to her family in America were tentative at best, as they were busy producers and managers and she was really a small time actress, but she could talk to them quickly and possibly convince them. They were always up for a bit of entertainment with shock value. With a bit of encouragement, Shikako got her to agree to a game plan, and left her to it. Yuko wrote the information down in a notepad app on her phone.

It was as Yuko was hanging up the phone after saying goodbye to her shogi sensei that she heard the soft rustling of a blanket behind her, followed by a familiar, sweet sounding voice inquiring, "You're going to catch Kira? I won't let you."

With a shriek, Yuko spun in place, dropping her slim phone to clatter to the floor of the camper trailer. It slid along the floor and stopped to tap against the intruder's black and grey striped sock clad foot.

There sat Misa Amane on the camper's couch which could be converted into a bed, clearly having awoken from a nap as well. She must have slipped into the camper to sleep after the filming, as some of the other actresses did on occasion since this was a shared space. Yuko usually slept through such disturbances, and hadn't noticed anyone entering.

The girl glared at Yuko, clutching a notebook to her chest in shaking hands. There was a pencil in her hand as well, but the force of her shaking had snapped it clean in half. She didn't seem to notice. She reached down and plucked Yuko's cellphone off the floor, inspecting it, then slipped it into her own pocket.

"It's too bad, I liked you. You were a good actress, Yuko." The girl's eyes were red, and almost looked like they were shining in the dark, illuminated only by the dim brightness of a tiny nightlight Yuko had left on in an outlet above the headboard. She had liked the nightlight because it was shaped like a fish and gave off a peaceful orange glow, but that once comforting luminescence seemed eerie and warped, as she looked at the blonde girl through the darkness.

 _'Sensei talked about psychics. This girl... she must be...'_ Yuko didn't get to finish that thought. Her eyes closed as her head fell against the pillow. She never woke up.

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 **Second Flashback Omake from 'Nukka of Avatar'**

Nukka tried to read the waterlogged map, and couldn't make sense of the running ink and blotchy patches. Aang's fingerprints had muddied one half of it after he'd fished it out of the water, and she could no longer tell if it had been an island, a body of water, a part of the legend, or some smear from the airbender's blueberry filled lunch on the surface. It was printed on thick paper, but that didn't save it from being ruined when the map hit the water. They would just have to try their best to navigate without it.

Appa was resting under the overhanging branches of a tropical tree, barely hiding his enormous head from the harsh sunlight. After parking himself under the tree, and smacking his massive bulk against its side as he got comfortable, a total of three coconuts fell to hit him on the head. He ate two of them, crunching them to pieces in his massive jaws, which just made Nukka think she should avoid getting her limbs too close to those giant teeth. The third was shared by the humans in the group, and Momo. After their impromptu snack, Aang had curled up on his side, nestled in the creature's long silky hair as the two of them fell into taking a mid-day nap. His little flying lemur curled up in a ball of fuzz beside him, snoring loudly.

Sokka had gone out to fetch more food and clean water while Nukka and Katara had made camp, having hurriedly built a fire with what they had found near the beach to try to dry out the map. They had some fish that Katara had caught with her water bending already cooking, but Sokka had gone to find more edible plants to suit Aang's diet, complaining the entire time about how meat was the only thing really worth eating, but still making a fuss over Aang 'needing to eat like a panda-gazelle, always munching on grass'. He'd been gone for quite a while now, so Katara had left to check on their brother.

Toph sat nearby on a rock she'd no doubt bent into a chair shape, which looked vaguely like the throne that belonged to the Earth Queen. To all appearances she was whittling- cutting away at stone with stone, and carving something small out of a crumbling rock held in her palm. Nukka wasn't going to question how the earthbender was doing that, or even what she was making, so long as the abrasive girl was occupying herself and not causing more trouble than she was worth. The two of them hadn't really been getting along as of late, especially after she had jokingly half turned Appa upside down in an attempt to get them to be quiet for a change. (And to just scare them a bit. She had memorized the sound of Sokka's scream, intent on using it to pick on him in the future. That had been priceless.)

The end result of her little joke had been Katara releasing her hold on the map, accidentally letting it fly out of her hand as she had switched to a death grip on Appa's saddle. Toph was no longer speaking to 'Miss Whispers', which suited her just fine. The 'promise to end her' was still hovering somewhere behind Nukka's left ear, every now and then.

The map had landed in the water, thus their current predicament.

The island Katara had wanted them to go to could be anywhere from here, and they would have no way of knowing if they were even on it now, what with the map having been destroyed by her mischievous moment of silliness which turned out to be a big mistake. Oh well, no one is perfect. They could make do, they'd just have to navigate on their journey by watching the movement of the sun and stars, now. No real big deal. They could get another map at the next settlement they found, she was certain.

She laid the map out to dry, wondering if it would be more readable once the ink stopped running and the air lightened it a bit, but decided as she balanced a rock on either side of it to keep the wind from stealing it again, that it was a lost cause.

"Nukka, our idiot brother got himself stuck in a rock, and almost got trampled by a creature he was hunting! And after all of that he needed me to pull him out." Katara said, dragging Sokka along behind her, limp as a rag doll in her iron grip. His defeated expression summed up how he was feeling without anyone needing to ask. "Weren't you after plants and fruits? What happened to nuts? How did you get stuck in a rock?"

"Not surprising. His head is as thick as one. He must have fit right in." Nukka shrugged, placing the last rock on the map and surveying her work. It wouldn't be flying off any time soon. They'd tried their best to splay it out and let the heat from the fire draw the moisture out, and Katara had tried her water bending to pull the water out as well. It was now up to the air to dry it. They didn't let Aang try because any time he did that he bent the air too forcefully, and Katara had warned him against turning the map into shreds.

Sokka slumped. "You probably think I deserved this. The universe hates me."

Nukka was about to respond to Sokka's sulking, when the tiny rock that Toph had been whittling was suddenly held in front of Nukka's face, and she could clearly see the resemblance between herself and the miniature stone figure, right down to the hair style and clothing she wore. The earthbender held the tiny stone statue just in front of Nukka's face, and turned it slowly in her hand so that she could get a good view of it on all sides. It was surprisingly well crafted and accurate considering the one who made it was unable to see such details. It was as Nukka was about to reach to take it and thank the girl for the pretty trinket that Toph's hand collapsed on the rock and crushed it to dust. "End... you." she whispered, her breath tickling Nukka's ear.

"I'm sorry!" Nukka said, her voice raising. Toph's level of standoffishness just kept increasing, and that little stunt wasn't helping things at all. Usually Nukka was the more withdrawn one, in some of their more awkward social situations she didn't mind letting the others talk things out unless she needed to add to it. Rather than being simply on the fringe of the group Toph was on another level, pushing people away with her brash personality. If they didn't need her to teach Aang earthbending... well, she doubted they'd be able to tolerate her presence for long. Sure, the girl needed some help what with her suffocating situation at home, and probably learned the hard way to stand up for herself and be more forceful, but still, enough was enough. She was a newcomer to their little gang, and they were still working out the kinks in their new relationship. They did not need to be at each other's throats over every little mistake, misunderstanding, or petty prank (the likes of which there were many, truthfully.)

Sokka blinked at the pile of dust the blind girl had left at his sister's feet then nudged it with his boot. He gave the girl an appreciative glance, while under his breath he was heard noting 'Never piss off the earthbender.'

The atmosphere did a sudden shift, as if Toph turned off her venomous killing-intent stand in, and was suddenly all smiles, "Oh, you are sorry? Good. No more upside down flying-bisons, then. And no more vomiting over the side of Appa's saddle, for me! Good talk. I'm glad I got my point across." She smacked Nukka on the back roughly, then spun on her bare feet and headed back to her little stone throne. Plopping down in the seat, she rested her chin on her hand, wiggling her toes into the dirt.

"You're... no... n... fun." Aang said in his sleep as he rolled over to face the other direction. The fuzzy lemur next to him yawned in its sleep, almost sounding as if in agreement, turning to do the same.

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...

 **Author's Note:** I do my own editing, which means I end up sleeping on it, then looking at it again with fresh eyes the next day, reading it through. If I end up just posting it too fast without doing that step then there's usually mistakes. I tend to want to get it out the moment I get it done, so sometimes I miss things. In that case, I end up catching it within a day of actually publishing it, so sometimes I need to re-upload and fix things, sorry! I don't have spell check as I've been using a basic WordPad to write, since I don't have Word program, so most of my final edits happen just before I post it since the copy-paste document manager has a spell-check. *wipes brow* That saves me some mistakes right there. The drawback though, I lose my formatting when moving it, so have to italicize and embolden things again. If you see something I missed, don't hesitate to tell me and I'll try to fix it fast.


	13. Chapter 13: Altering Reality

Dreaming of Death Note: 13 - Altering Reality

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Shikako stepped into the dark room silently, and observed a conversation in progress. Watari was standing at a computer console, the wide and tall wall of screens illuminating the darkened room painfully. She wondered how he didn't hurt his eyes like that. A familiar voice filtered in through a speaker system overhead, "Yes, we've made much progress. Progressing backwards. The girl invites herself in to the task force, usurps my command center, and turns every assistant I have in my employ toward irrelevant tasks that accomplish nothing in the long run. Everything has devolved into a snail's crawl.

"She started a wild goose chase. They look where she points. It is expected, but frustrating none the less that the interference occurred, but to have such far reaching and lasting consequences... What I mean to say, Watari, is that long after she left, they are still doing it."

Watari nodded, though Shikako was certain he could not be seen doing so, "Yes. It was something you disagreed with."

The voice continued, "I know I initially allowed it, so they could get it out of their systems and show that there is no benefit to that angle... but it has been days. They are still looking fruitlessly.

"The police working with me are convinced that Shikako's idea of prison staff workers as suspects is valid enough to merit thorough investigation and aren't looking elsewhere, no matter how I hint or prod or ask." The voice filtered into the room through what she recognized as the speaker phone. The image on the screen was that of a familiar dark haired man in his customary crouched position in yet another stylized wing-backed chair, pressing a corded phone to his ear with two fingers holding it up as if it were tainted. His deep voice barely held any inflection, and the tone never wavered.

Shikako recognized it as Ryuzaki, L. He was complaining about her own, in her opinion, 'bright idea' and the impact it had on the Kira investigation. She didn't intend to usurp his investigation and throw everything into chaos, and he clearly stated he believed that to be her intent. It was really just a happy side effect, now that her suspicions had veered into uncomfortable territory. With him assuming her to be either Kira himself or an accomplice of Kira, she supposed it shouldn't be unexpected as well that he would take anything she says with a grain of salt and a wary nonacceptance. Even with that thought, his petulant attitude was getting on her nerves.

The man continued, "It is clear to me that Kira is a student, following a strict schedule, despite the fact he has blatantly spaced out his killings as if to contradict that, or to say, 'So what?' and with the investigation turning directions I did not direct, I feel I've lost control here."

Hearing enough, Shikako cleared her throat. L continued to rant to himself in the background. Watari jumped, spun in place, and then placed a hand to his chest. "Oh, hello! How did you get in here?" Shaking his head, he turned back to the microphone sitting on the console before him, then continued speaking- but not to her, interrupting L's complaints, "I see, Ryuzaki. I need to put you on hold for a moment. Miss Shikako has arrived at the facility and I will be taking her through the initial introduction to the building now. This may take half an hour, we can talk again later."

"Ah, yes. Good. I was looking forward to her arrival. Light and Sora should be here shortly as well. Allow her to enter the building, then bring her in," he ordered, as if he hadn't just been complaining about her intervention irritating him in the past.

"She... is already inside. Standing behind me." Watari's voice held a warning tone oddly mixed with a bit of awe as he told his employer this tidbit. Shikako leaned against the doorway, crossing her arms, amused.

"I... hmm." was all L had to say before the man hung the phone up gingerly with his two fingers splayed around the cradle and the vocal line went dead. Observing him on the monitor, she saw he bit his lip and chewed on it thoughtfully, while wiggling his toes. His fingers tapped the knobby tops of his jean-clad knees, eyes wide and unfocused.

"Sorry to interrupt?" She asked, not really sorry to have learned that what she'd assumed to be a good idea to investigate the Kira angle was still being taken as 'a plan to overthrow the brilliant detective by the evil prime suspect'. Her plans for the day were going to make this even more interesting, she was certain.

Watari gave her a grandfatherly smile, "You, Miss Shikako, have a way with the silence."

She didn't know what to say to that, so said nothing, leaning her weight from foot to foot, waiting for him to continue.

"I will get you registered in the computers, properly. Fingerprints and retinal scans. I have some things to give you, for identification purposes, and communication, though until you get a phone, you might find part of it useless."

"Sorry?" She asked. "Mine is still in lockup?"

"Nonsense, we can provide you with that tool, as well."

"Uh, thanks, I guess."

 _'Yes, give me a bugged phone, why don't you._ '

"One quick question, Miss Shikako? How did you get into this secure building? It was constructed so that no one could simply enter unwanted..." the old man raised his bushy grey brows at her.

"I, uh... Walked in? With Agent Rei, who told me we would be meeting here from now on since you texted her to bring me here?" She stated it as a question, not certain why this man wouldn't remember telling them to do that. Perhaps it had been L's instructions and Watari hadn't heard?

"...I see. Yes. My mistake. She has clearance to open the doors already. I overlooked that."

"She let me in. Was she not supposed to?"

"No, no, that is fine. I just... ah, nevermind. I'm an old man, sometimes my mind plays tricks on me."

 _'The mind plays tricks on you, huh? It gets better than that, old man.'_

There was one thing left to do, to guarantee that things worked in her favor. She just had to convince L of the truth, and to make it happen. This was going to be something to change how the world saw itself.

' _I've been going about this all wrong. It's time to toss out the story line whatever it may be, because from here on out,'_ she thought, _'I'll make my own.'_

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"You may call me Ryuzaki. Oh, and that's not my real name, for obvious reasons." The man at the computer stated, watching Light intently. Light gave him a polite smile and a raised brow, nodding his head in agreement. He understood the need for secrecy, and knew everyone else present by their actual names, from the police headquarters. The two new arrivals stepped into the room, announcing their presence.

"Sis! You're here, too? They let you onto the team?" Light looked up, surprised to see Michiko walk into the room following Watari, who Light did not recognize as he had never met him yet. It had been Ukita whom had walked him through the entrance and gotten him registered at the door. Watari was pushing a cart with fresh tea in kettles and mugs on it. He bowed to Light, saying, "I am Watari, good to meet you." Light bowed back, then turned to inspect his sister's new accessory.

Shikako was wearing one of the belt buckles they'd all been given, the ones with the emergency tracking signals on them, since she couldn't argue a way around not having one on her and get away with the excuse. She had wondered why they hadn't insisted on one before now. She was closing a brand new flip phone, to slip it into her pocket. The small, thin belt she was given matched her outfit, her new winter coat and blue jeans with black shoes. The phone, however, was a garish neon pink with hand glued glitter sparkles shaped like a deer on its protective case. The deer looked oddly familiar, like it had been posed the same as one of her deer figurines on the shelf in her room at home. She assumed this was someone's idea of a joke since the phone's protective case, which was see-through with a decorative paper insert, seemed to be purchased and decorated with her in mind. She had filed that away under the thought of ' _L being weird_ ' or maybe the man had too much time on his hands.

Light had just been introduced to the task force, and had been scrutinizing the odd looking man who had thus far sat quietly at a computer console in an odd position, with his knees drawn up and feet in the chair. He believed it looked ridiculously uncomfortable but kept the thought to himself. Aizawa was currently manning the desk at the station, but he'd met him before, too.

"I've been with the investigation team for a while now." she admitted, meeting his suddenly assessing gaze. She looked between him, and the man with rings around his eyes, then gave him a small smile.

"I feel so left out." Light complained, glancing between his dad and his sister with a semi-pout on this face.

"I'm sorry, Light." Soichiro said, "You've only just been given clearance to enter the building and join the investigation. This building is, actually, our newest addition. It's been around for a while, but we're only just using it as our new headquarters. We're all getting used to it. I guess by now you've realized that Agents Sora and Rei work for L?"

"Yes, I kinda figured that the moment I was told they were to follow us for our own protection. That sounded wrong to me. How could they save us from Kira? I mean, if Kira really wanted to kill us, we'd simply die of a heart attack. So in that way, I don't know what L was thinking." Light scrutinized the two of them, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Yeah, that was kinda obvious." his father said with a sigh.

"It was a strange explanation, but at least mom and Sayu were comforted by the thought. I don't see the point in sending them to stay with us though. What was the reason? If you had this big building, then surely it wasn't for lack of room? I had assumed that was why, actually, but this disproves it. Having them follow us everywhere just seemed kind of paranoid." he said with a rather exaggerated shrug.

Shikako scowled, "We're the prime suspects."

"We have to keep an eye on you, so that's why we follow you around. Otherwise we'd be taking you in." Agent Sora stated. He was seated at one of the computer chairs, with his back turned to the computer console, legs crossed at the knee.

"I'm pretty certain you'd have to have an arrest warrant charging us with a specific crime to take away our freedoms, wouldn't you? And at any rate, you have no right to follow us everywhere we go, just because dad agreed to it, doesn't mean that we also have to. Maybe I like my privacy and have a right to it." said Light as he eyed everyone in the room.

"That can easily be obtained," Ryuzaki said in an off-handed manner. He then continued, in a quieter tone, "For any country, really. We have connections."

"It's the only way to ensure our investigation isn't compromised, while still allowing you your freedoms." Said the woman who Light recognized as Agent Rei as she walked up behind his sister.

Michiko suddenly smirked mischievously, " _Join the ambiguously dark side_ ; we have tea, and cookies." She grabbed a tea cup off the cart and filled it with black tea while she joked, looking around exaggeratedly, "Wait, where's the cookies, Watari? Aaw, they were so good they're all gone. We _had_ cookies. _Excellent_ cookies. Which was the whole draw in the first place. Now we need a new recruiting gimmick. Hm... well, we can teach you to _make_ excellent cookies."

Shikako offered the tea to the woman standing beside her, who accepted with a small smile, saying, "That might do it." Light rolled his eyes at his sister as Matsuda chuckled at her joke.

"Yes, I could go for some cookies right about now." The man at the computer agreed, looking up from a paper he was perusing, held up between two pinched fingers, and glancing back at them over his shoulder with hopeful eyes, "With chocolate frosting."

"Ah, I can fetch some..." she looked up in surprise as the old man actually walked out of the room to do so.

She laughed, "I was joking but... ok!"

"Any bets it's a long wait because he's decided to bake them himself? He did that before, ya know." Matsuda said. "Oh, I bet he needs help!" he then made to follow after the older man, eager to help with the cookies. Sugary substances were apparently a big draw, today.

"Don't forget to tell him, chocolate frosting, Matsu." the man ordered.

"Right, Ryuzaki!" said Matsuda as he headed out of the room. Mogi took over manning the cart, pouring cups of tea for everyone.

Light hesitantly turned to his sister, shifting gears, "Prime... suspects? So, earlier, when you asked me if I was Kira, Michiko...?"

"Yeah. I just wanted to see your reaction." His sister said as she got herself a cup of tea and sat on the couch across from her brother's chair. "Of course, if you really are Kira, then you have given nothing away. But I personally doubt it. Not just because you're my baby brother, but because you're too good of a person. It's not in your nature, and you just wouldn't do something like that. So, I asked." she gazed at him through hooded lashes, her eyes narrowing, almost like she wanted him to deny it.

"We raised you better." Soichiro stated proudly.

"I see. She took me by surprise with that one. I never would have expected something like that, especially coming from her." Light closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair, looking tired. "Or that my older sister is already working on the investigation! I admit, I'm jealous that I wasn't involved."

"And by the way, we're using fake names because of Kira. I'm Shikako Nara." she told him, nodding and pointing to herself.

"Ah, should I use a fake as well? What should it be? Since we're siblings, should I choose a Nara name? Oh, and Shoko Maki, you're an agent, so I bet that's not your real name, is it? I bet Rei isn't your name either, then." Light turned to face Rei, who nodded in agreement.

' _Naomi Misora._ ' Shikako thought, thinking back on what Dan had told her. She'd told Light a fake name all along, this Shoko Maki, back when he had allowed her to borrow his cell phone to contact their father at their first meeting. Had the agent suspected him, even back then? Probably just being cautious.

Rei took a seat near Sora in one of the chairs at the back of the room. "Nor is Sora my real name, not that you need to know my real name." _'Ray Penber, Dan said. Right.'_

"Feel free to think on it and come up with one later, Light." Ryuzaki suggested as Mogi approached him with a saucer and cup of tea. Shikako smirked and waved her hand in a strange motion.

The boy nodded in turn, "Right. I will... Ryuzaki." Light eyed the older man strangely as Ryuzaki took five sugar cubes and dropped them all into his cup of tea that Mogi had just served him. He kept his own dish of sugar in front of him at his computer, and had been stacking them precariously, repeatedly, on the desk as he read from a small pile of papers. Three more of them made their way into the teacup before Ryuzaki even looked at it. Ryuzaki lifted the cup to his lips, and paused.

"Did I drink all of the tea? I did, didn't I?" his pursed lips perched on the edge of the cup. "I must have been preoccupied." He stared into the cup, incomprehension written into the faint lines on his face as he frowned.

"No, you didn't. You hadn't drank any at all." Light pointed out, having just been watching him and his odd sugar cube habit the entire time.

"But... my tea is gone." Ryuzaki blinked in surprise.

"I'll pour you some more!" Mogi offered. He walked over with the teapot off of the cart once more, and refilled Ryuzaki's cup.

Watari chose that moment to return, with Matsuda in tow, carrying a plate each piled high with chocolate frosted cookies. They set them on the cart and offered cookies to everyone. They must have been keeping quite a few in stock, to have gathered them so fast.

Ryuzaki picked up his cup, noticing a motion out of the corner of his eye, then stopped with it touching his lips once more. He held it up, and then turned it upside down, dropping all of the still solid sugar cubes onto the surface of the desk before him. They crumbled on impact, making small piles of sugar on the desktop.

"It- It happened once more!" Mogi gasped at the empty cup, having seen it filled with his own eyes twice.

"But where has all the _tea_ gone?" Shikako smirked as she said it, mimicking 'Pirates of the Caribbean'. No one caught that, though, as they were too startled by the odd development. Her hand moved quickly, but no one seemed to notice.

"Exactly. It's simply gone. I poured it myself." Mogi stated, staring into the tea cup with a bemused expression. It was completely devoid of liquid, again.

"My cup is empty." Ryuzaki announced with awe in his voice as he pondered the situation.

"You're drunk, Ryuzaki." Shikako said, sipping her steaming cup of hot orange pekoe black tea. She may have been having too much fun with this.

"No, I am not. I have not been drinking... I actually haven't been drinking any substance at all, as it keeps vanishing." He held his cup upside down in front of his nose for emphasis.

"You're drunk. _Go home._ " she suggested, eyes narrowed in his direction, tea cup held in front of her smirk, steam coming out in warm drafts before her face.

He placed a finger in his mouth, biting it. Eyes wide, he spun to focus on her in an alarming manner, like an owl spotting a mouse, "At present, this is my current residence."

"Good, you made it home safe. I'm proud of you. You're still drunk, though." She continued to sip her tea, not even looking at him. The other men in the room picked up their tea cups, wondering why there was no longer any tea in them. If they had added sugar, the sugar was still in a solid, dry cube. Light held his up carefully, examining the empty cup, then setting it back on the tray before him. It had had liquid in it before, he was absolutely positive. He had even tasted it. Agent Rei sipped from her own cup which Shikako had given her, considering the rest of the room with a curious gaze. There was nothing wrong with her tea. But she hadn't seen them all drinking it, either.

"I'm beginning to think you don't listen. Or simply don't hear. Or perhaps don't comprehend. Well, either one is a possible option." Ryuzaki was glaring into his cup once more, holding it sideways in front of his nose, sniffing it. "Though perhaps you do that to make me question your intelligence. Or sanity. Then again, this makes me honestly question my own."

"I heard you. You drank all the tea. By yourself. None for us. Greedy man, Ryuzaki." she said, setting her own cup down on the saucer in her hand and giving him a stern glare. She had been raising the cup to occasionally drink then setting it down on the saucer resting on her lap repeatedly, and making odd hand gestures in between those actions, for some time. Still, she said this, fully knowing that she and Rei were the only ones in the room who still had tea.

"Hey, yeah, my tea is gone too!" Matsuda chimed in, holding his own cup upside down. It didn't even drip, as if it had never had liquid in it.

"As is mine, Ryuzaki!" Soichiro stated in confusion.

"It... I haven't drank that much yet, but my cup is empty. Watari?" Light asked, glancing at the old man questioningly.

Watari shook his head sadly, "The teapot is likewise empty. Dry, even. I made it fresh, myself, moments prior. It is not even warm."

The investigation squad was beginning to get restless, and looked at each other with hesitant glances, all of them at a loss. The only two people in the room who managed to keep actual tea in their tea cups were Shikako and Agent Rei, and only because Shikako was the one pouring the tea for the two of them. After she did so, no one could seem to locate the teapot Shikako had used. It was like it vanished from sight.

Sora noticed a quiet snickering in the room, and tried to find the source of the noise.

"Have you considered that your habit of not sleeping is becoming a problem?" Shikako asked in apparent concern a she eyed Ryuzaki's hunched form. Well, mock concern. She knew damn well why the tea kept vanishing. She was the one doing it. No one else in the room could cast an area-of-effect genjutsu, and while it was draining to do so, she believed it was worth it to drive the point home.

"I've been sleeping, though!" Matsuda stated, "And I'm seeing it- or _not_ seeing it, now."

"What is going on here!?" Ukita asked, his voice raised in panic as he looked at his yet again empty teacup, moments after Watari had poured him a fresh mug.

Watari was still puzzling over the idea that the teapot seemed to have filled itself again, and would pour tea when he tried to use it, only to have the tea vanish when he looked inside it. "This isn't natural!"

"You're right, it isn't. It's supernatural." Shikako laughed. She leaned back and crossed her legs. Everyone looked in her direction for an explanation.

"Supernatural? What do you mean by that?" Mogi inquired. He tapped his hand against his mug, "You mean like magic?"

"Well, that's the closest explanation, yes." Shikako nodded at him.

"Magic doesn't exist, sis. Even little children know that." Light told her in a condescending tone, though his eyes never left his empty tea cup.

"You're right. It's like a magic trick, but not quite. Now you see it," For emphasis, she pointed at Light's cup, and with a quick hand motion that she had been making as if it were nervous gestures throughout the evening, the cup filled with tea in front of everyone's eyes. Every last person in the room stared at the teacup, crowding around the couch and loveseat, watching as it filled itself. Her father let out a breath he had been holding, sounding as if he were gasping. His face took on a mortified expression as he looked at his daughter, then over to Ryuzaki.

"Now, you don't." with another hand sign, the tea vanished.

Ryuzaki stood, stared at the once again empty tea cup, then dropped his own tea cup, losing his two-fingered grip. It crashed against the tile and shattered into many sharp, minuscule pieces. He was looking at her hands in understanding.

 _'He noticed? He knows?'_

"I know what you are doing." He said, eyes wide, as a smile broke out on his face. "I've seen that. I know this. Now it all makes sense. That name you chose, as well. Nara. It's from Naruto. So are those hand signs, that... that was a genjutsu. You are using chakra? Does that even exist?" the last bit he seemed to be asking himself, gaze turning inward, a finger to his lips once more. "The pictures on your wall and mirror. Characters from that series. Or... of course you'd have a fascination with it, if you could do something similar yourself. It makes me wonder how much in the realm of manga is based on reality, now..."

"That's ridiculous!" Mogi claimed. He stood behind the couch next to Soichiro, still eyeing the tea pot, which Watari now held upside down, warily. "Magic, like from a cartoon?"

"Ryuzaki! What are you saying?" Light asked. He looked askance at the sunken-eyed man, then back at his sister, who just smiled and nodded. The confirmation made him blink stupidly, mouth gaping like a fish. Shikako didn't often see such a stupefied look on her little brother's face. She couldn't help it and broke out laughing at the sight.

Ryuzaki turned to Light, his voice even and sincere, "Your sister is psychic. Which backs my theory. No one else believed it, though. In fact, I remember _she_ _herself_ scoffed at the idea of psychics, didn't you? I suppose that's to be expected if you were intent on hiding it. Why expose it now?" He turned back to her, still thumbing at his lip.

Her laughter died down as the became serious once more, "About that, there's a few very good reasons why I am showing you this. It was something better left secret, but that's not in my hands now. _One_ , I want to trust you. _Two_ , the world is going to have official proof of psychics, soon. We need to control how that happens, because it will happen either way. _Three_ , you uniquely are in a position to do something to help many people, so I bring this matter to you. I showed you my specific power, because I needed you to understand. I am psychic, having been making things disappear- but I am not Kira. I don't use psychic powers to make people die of heart attacks. I still don't know why, but it feels like Kira _isn't_ a psychic to me. Call it a hunch."

Almost everyone in the room was staring at Shikako with a new perspective, some merely assessing, like Mogi and Ukita, and others a bit frightened, like her own family. Matsuda frowned, staring at the floor. Agent Rei had leveled a hard gaze in Shikako's direction, probably going over every moment they'd spent together up until then in her mind. Sora had his eyes closed, arms crossed. L, meanwhile, had a wide-eyed gaze, and an accompanying smile like a happy kid in a candy store, promised as much of his favorite treat that he could carry. Watari had backed away, watching warily.

"You yourself are psychic, yet you think Kira isn't? Intriguing. Why?" Ryuzaki asked her.

After taking a sip, she set her tea cup down on the table once more, "While there are different kinds of psychics, most are not able to harm others. Psychic doesn't just mean dangerous. The vast majority of psychics aren't able to influence others like that! You can help them, though, and they will need help soon."

She had intended to show her 'psychic powers' in her own way, rather than letting Dan call the shots, but hadn't expected any of them to connect it to the Naruto-verse. That the detective had done it accurately and so quickly was actually impressive. And more than a bit troublesome. She did not want to explain that part. Most people wouldn't have paid much attention to her quick motions, or might not have connected them to the manga. (Clearly Ryuzaki had read the Naruto mangas.)

Ryuzaki pondered her statement, "How so?"

"There's nothing we can do about Kira alone, obviously. Whatever he's doing, he isn't just going to stop because we ask. There is someone else though, a man known as Dan, that is about to reveal psychic powers to the world. That's why I've brought this to you, otherwise I'd have kept it to myself. It's the manner that he will do so which is the problem. This will create a dramatic shift in how the world functions, when people realize it's real and not just a television show. Think of the old 'War of The Worlds' radio broadcast, but for real." She knew this had been a thing in this world, so referenced it easily. "It's the equivalent of a world-wide terror attack, really. It would turn families against themselves, neighbors against each other, even just the suspicion would do that, if it is instantly connected to something like a mass murderer. This man claims that Kira is working with him, to provide 'divine justice' but I believe that part is not true. He intends to use it as a means of control."

Ryuzaki nodded, "It would be an effective and efficient one."

"If people know for an absolute certainty that psychics are real, it will have long reaching consequences. Dan wants to use it to control the world with fear of psychic retaliation. Aside from what Kira has already done to the world, which could always be explained with something more mundane like a virus spreading through a population or something like a biological weapon at his disposal, but since there's a more than likely chance that people will see through that, it probably wouldn't hold water. You have a chance to stop the worst of it from happening, with your international and government connections. You probably can't stop Dan's broadcast before he manages to hold the world hostage."

"Oh, I get it!" Matsuda chimed in, having calmed down enough while listening to Shikako, "If you can get the governments to back you, they can create safe zones for psychics and fair treatment laws concerning them!"

"That's right." She agreed, nodding in his direction. He smiled widely in turn. "They need to address it, and fast, because Dan is moving on this tomorrow. Dan has many people, infinite outlets, and we have no way of predicting when or how it will happen, so we have to be prepared and head him off first. That's why I bring this to you, L."

"Wait! _What did you say?_ You mean _Ryuzaki_ is really _L_?" Light jumped to his feet and stared openly at the hunched figure of the strange man with dark rimmed eyes. His expression hardened, until he turned to his sister once more, gaze softening, "Why hide that? Wait, that was because you think I might be a suspect in this case? I see. So how do you know?"

Shikako let out a put-upon sigh, "Sorry, yeah, he's L. And I guessed."

 _'If Light couldn't figure that one out on his own, then he's an idiot, and Light is not an idiot. He probably figured that Ryuzaki was L from the beginning, but didn't voice it.'_

Ryuzaki stared at the two of them, then scratched at his leg with his bare toes. "You're so quick to out me. I'm hurt. I'm starting to think the two of you are really working together as Kira." he said in a mockingly mournful voice.

"Impossible!" Light protested, waving an arm in front of his face in a cutting motion, signifying a 'no'. "My sister is not Kira, and neither am I!"

"We haven't ruled anything out." Ukita stated, hands gripping the back of the loveseat.

Ignoring her brother's indignation and Ukita's agitation, she continued, wanting to stay on her topic, "There will still be a broadcast as damage control, there's nothing we can do about that, now that Dan's got the idea. No matter how many times we try to control or block it he will get it out there in some form. It will have to be believable, too. So we're going to do it first and cut his false ties to Kira, and change it from a terrorism threat to a simple acknowledgement of a people that have been unseen until now, before he can try to do that. We'll make certain that the initial broadcast will ensure that psychics will be safe from official retaliation, and possibly from individuals acting like vigilantes if we hint that it won't be tolerated. It might keep them safe from being associated officially with Kira, if governments are backing it. You as well as I know that the moment people realize that their neighbors are psychic they will think they are as bad as Kira. It wouldn't be good. You need to do damage control on that fast. We're going to air the message before it happens, I've already got someone working on it, so you might want to get on that and help support them. We're sending out the message tonight. Dan's was planned for noon tomorrow."

"You have people? Hm. How do you know Kira isn't working with him?" Ryuzaki asked, hunched over with a hand in his jeans pocket.

Light ran a hand through his hair, unintentionally mussing it up, and sat back down on the chair he'd occupied moments ago. Shaking his head, he stared at the empty tea cup again, seeing his sister in a new way. This had been shocking, and it was apparent by the distress on the boy's face. He recalled an incident, many years ago, in which the shadows played at her feet. He had wondered if it were true, or just his imagination. Looking back up at his sister, sitting confidently in a room full of people who had just heard she was not 'normal' and looking as if this was a daily occurrence, he wondered just how long she had wanted to tell people about this, and what it would mean for her now. What exactly was her ability? She hadn't been making shadows disappear- only liquids. The shadows had moved. He frowned at her, not knowing what to think. There was more she was hiding. With a sigh, he grabbed a cookie, taking a bite.

"Fair question. I know because I found one of Dan's followers, and he confirmed that the 'divine justice' line is just a ploy to get Kira to come out of hiding and back Dan's proposal." Shikako told them. "Dan is planning on airing his message on the major television stations world wide, tomorrow at noon, as if he already had Kira working with him. He might already know how it could pan out, because Dan seems to be a precognitive psychic. He knows the future, in regards to what happens to himself, so far as we know." She didn't air her concerns about this because she wasn't positive, but there was the chance that there was more to Dan's abilities. Or he had another person who could do more. She would figure that out herself, if she needed to.

"Who is this follower, then?" Mogi asked, falling into a chair in the back of the room. He had grabbed one of the cookies, and was staring at it as if it were alive, still processing the fact that the world was not as it seemed.

"Me!" a disembodied voice chirped loudly throughout the room. Mogi dropped his cookie in startlement. The invisible boy materialized beside Shikako, suddenly appearing seated next to her on the couch, a steaming teapot held carefully in an oven mitt in his hands. There was a loud uproar as everyone in the room gasped or, in Matsuda's case, outright screamed. If the disappearing tea wasn't enough to convince them, the appearing boy did the trick. Rei set her tea down on a nearby table and pushed it away.

"This is amazing, and I want to know how you did that. Yet again, Shikako, you out me to someone else. I truly am hurt by this." Ryuzaki said, though his voice gave no indication of any type of hurt, period. If anything, he sounded more amused. "I do understand the consequences such a message could create. We will take steps to control this situation. However, this also means one thing. The probability of you being Kira... has increased by sixty percent."

Light, having been biting into the cookie once more as Ryuzaki said that, began to choke and cough momentarily. Shikako quickly handed him her half-full teacup and as he took a greedy swallow, he glared at the man venomously. "What? Probability? On what are you actually basing this?" Light asked once his throat cleared.

Ryuzaki wiggled his toes as he stepped over the broken shards of his tea cup and walked toward the coffee table between Light's chair and the couch where the vanishing tea had been. Light made a strangled sound as he stared at his sister, coughing a bit more. Hideo leaned forward to refill the cup for him.

"Oh, come on!" she countered, "You're pulling those numbers out of-"

"Michiko!" Soichiro yelled, but there was something wrong with his voice, too high, then breaking suddenly. He wasn't admonishing her, but rather he was reaching a hand towards her, catching himself on the back of the couch behind where she sat. He gasped once again, his other hand moved up to clutch at his arm, while most of his weight fell forward over the back of the couch and shoved forward.

Hideo turned in his seat, eyes startled. The teapot slipped off the oven mitt and splashed all over the table in front of him. "Aah!" he backed away from the hot liquid.

"D-Dad! What's wrong?" Light asked, jumping to his feet, his own distress forgotten.

Soichiro gasped, grasping at his chest, and fell to the floor.

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* * *

 **.**

 **Author's Note:** That took a sudden serious turn. I was originally going to have every single sugary substance in L's building vanish overnight. Without explanation. Brain... best laid plans... where did you two fly off to? Ah, well... it wouldn't have worked so well.

Interesting Name meanings, from what I can tell, and I'm not claiming these to be canon or accurate:

Yagami = Night god, or A god of night.

So that means- "A god of night, Light or moon"= Yagami Light.

Michiko = a beautiful and wise child.

Sayu = Sadness? Feeble? White? Depends on origin.

Sachiko = Child of good fortune/or bliss, Happiness.

Soichiro = First son.

Amane- sound of the heavens

Onni - Happiness/luck

Dan - Judge or Govern (Also can be from Daniel as in One Under God)

Laine - Wave

Yuko- (yu) gentleness, superiority and (ko) child

Hideo is a Japanese name written with the character for "hide" (excel, beauty, excellence) There's a pun in there somewhere if you read that as English instead of Japanese pronunciation. Might have to look for it though. XD

And Wendy of course, came from Peter Pan, though I may have been reading a certain _Greg Bear_ book recently.

Names are strange things. If they mean something else to someone else, that's cool too, but this was what I looked up and thought it was quite fitting and interesting how they had chosen some of the names for this series. Names that wouldn't really exist, but sound like they might. Since I didn't know much about names to begin with, I just chose one for Shikako that I knew was an actual name since I went with traits I figured her family there would focus on.

This series has the strangest 'English' names I've ever seen. "Beyond Birthday" being the more important one. He was the guy that had been born with Shinigami eyes in the BB murders case, the person L got the name 'Ryuzaki' from in case anyone doesn't have that back story, it was sold as it's own written novel starring Naomi Misora.

Why am I going on about names? Eh, someone told me that **Nukka** (-which is not a name I came up with, as someone from the forum found it and to all of us, it stuck. It's an actual name, probably Inuit or something. I dunno. It roughly means 'little sister' like a sister's little sister.) Well, someone told me that it means something rude in slang. I'd never heard of that. I want to let you all know, regardless of potential slang meanings, this is an actual name and is not anything meant to be offensive. Apparently in Finnish it's something like ' _fuzz_ ', if Google is accurate. (When is it ever? I dunno. I Googled all of these names to get these meanings.)

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	14. Chapter 14: Best Bad Intentions

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Dreaming of Death Note: 14 - Best Bad Intentions

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"He's having a heart attack!" Matsuda cried.

"Dad?" Light choked.

"Chief?" Mogi gasped, rushing to the couch.

"No!" Shikako jumped over the back of the couch and crouched over her father, slipping something from a bag in her pocket into his mouth.

"Here, shh, let it dissolve." she told him. He looked at her with panic filled wide eyes but did as she said.

Light gulped down the last of the tea to clear his own throat so he could breathe and tossed the cup to clatter across the table. He ran around the corner of he couch and crouched next to her, helping her settle him into her lap.

" _What_ did you give him?" Ukita asked, having watched the exchange.

"Medicine. It's new, and experimental. It's supposed to stop heart attacks." she explained, helping her father into an upright position. His head listed to the side and he was breathing in a labored manner, eyes closing slowly.

"From where did you get that?" Ryuzaki asked, coming around the end of the couch to see the chief on the floor, his head cradled to her chest, with Light checking his pulse.

"Dan gave it to her." Hideo said, simply going with the flow, knowing exactly where she'd gotten it from. No one could dispute it, at this point in time. He leaned over the back of the couch, watching the two of them as Soichiro calmed, no longer clutching his chest. Shikako met his eye in an unspoken 'thanks'. He nodded imperceptibly.

"I have called for assistance. An ambulance will be here shortly." Watari informed them from the back of the room. "We will need to bring him to the lower floor."

Mogi and Sora carried him down to the first floor, with everyone else following behind, filling the elevator in turn.

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* * *

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It was too warm in the small room, where many people had been crowded close. Shikako shrugged off her coat and set it on the back of her chair. Light hadn't even seemed to notice the cold outside, as they'd rushed their father to the emergency room earlier. He had forgotten to arm himself against the cold, and left his coat at the tower. The entire trip to the hospital he'd been in the ambulance with his dad. Shikako had rode over with the others in one of L's cars. Watari was still outside, having parked it.

Upon arriving at the hospital Shikako had had to rush in to tell the medical professionals that her father had taken an experimental drug, and he couldn't be given the usual medications to treat the heart attack until they knew if it had taken effect. They would know within the next half hour, as all signs of a heart attack would have vanished in that time at the most, based on test data from the facility it was developed in. In best case scenarios, the relief had happened almost instantly. She remembered enough of the specifics of the medicine to be able to advise them about that, just in case, knowing she might need to use it. The medical staff had grilled her for more information on the medicine, and she had finally given up and handed them three samples of it. She let them make of it what they wanted, while Rei hovered over her shoulder, listening with a calm gaze.

They monitored him closely in the emergency room. Twenty minutes had passed.

Soichiro had been moved to another room to be monitored when they deemed him stable enough to do so. Michiko and Light each took a chair on one side, while Ryuzaki claimed one on the other. Everyone had else stood around the room, settling into place.

Hideo grabbed the television remote out of nervousness, then clicked the ON button. It was morbidly quiet in the room, as Soichiro was asleep. They had tuned in to a broadcast in progress.

The image of the word KIRA in flowing script appeared on the screen of every television that had been tuned in to Sakura Television at that time. The word appeared in red writing and looked to be written on a pink card. A voice-over told them that a person working at another station had just died of a heart attack on live television to prove Kira's ability was at work and that the station was taking this very seriously.

An explanation of that anchorman having been an opposer to Kira's will followed in a muffled, electronically garbled voice. The voice then said, "I am speaking on behalf of Kira. At the moment, Kira is not communicating with anyone, not even me. I know this for a fact. But I know of Kira, and will follow his will. Therefore I will bring it to the attention of the world. I must mention, Kira is not, I repeat, not associated with the psychics. He will not be providing 'divine retribution' in favor of the 'Psychic Children'. If you do not know who they are, you will soon. Do not be alarmed. They are a group that is using Kira's name in vain, and are tarnishing the reputation of a people without a voice. This will not be tolerated. No one will be allowed to use Kira's name. However, this one act against Kira can be forgiven, if they realize the error of their ways," the speaker stopped momentarily, breathing in as if composing his or herself. Everyone in the room looked at each other with a myriad of expressions.

L's was listening in pure interest, " _Hypocrite_ ," he whispered.

The voice on the television continued, "If any of them are evil, they will be punished by Kira himself. They are people as well. We will live together, peacefully. Let Kira provide punishment as necessary. He will protect you."

"Peace and harmony, right? They're making it sound like Kira will make it a paradise." Matsuda said skeptically.

"Don't believe it for a second." Ryuzaki ordered. Matsuda nodded, turning back to the screen.

"If you are true and just then you have nothing to fear, whether you are psychic or not. He does not obey them, and they do not speak for him. In this instance, I do. I, too, have Kira's power. This is why I know that Kira himself is not psychic, because neither am I. I warn you now, if you stand against Kira, or against myself, you will fall." with this, the message abruptly ended.

Light appeared shocked, his mouth hanging open, hands clenching tightly to the corner of the bed. L stared at the screen, hands relaxed on his knees. He didn't seem surprised.

"There are two Kiras?" Ukita breathed.

Mogi groaned, "This gets worse and worse."

"Huh, that about covers it. In a very warped, and weird way. And very creepy sounding." Hideo said. "But, where's our footage? Why did Yuko do this instead?"

Shikako examined the screen, tensing, "She didn't."

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* * *

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Misa watched the television and let out a burst of giggles. "They did it! They aired my message! Kira will see that for sure!"

"If that is what you desire, Misa." Rem said in a sigh. She reserved her doubts that it was a good idea to get involved with the other human owner of a death note. She had mentioned it many times before, and it fell on deaf ears.

Misa had heard everything, and had made her decision. She palmed a pencil as she stared at a picture of Michiko Yagami, from the elementary school's digital year book, which filled half of her computer screen. The shogi sensei. The prodigy. Perfect grades, and with a little brother to boot, and his grades weren't anything to sneeze at either. It was amazing what she could buy. She was rather fond of this method of online shopping. She'd even gotten their home address, and everything. They were related to the chief of police! She'd found an old photo of the chief, from a previously solved crime that had been published online.

Everything else seemed to have been wiped from the net. That was something. That meant this person was afraid of Kira, and might be working with L. No, was certainly working with L. But there was no picture of his son Light, or a recent one of the shogi sensei Michiko, either. Just her class photo in the year book from many years prior. She knew who they were, now.

"What a strange creature," She heard Rem mutter as the shinigami behind her stared hard at the monitor.

Misa Amane giggled in response, "Should I kill her?" She squinted at the screen, scrutinizing the image. It was too blurry to really see all that clearly, though she could make it out if she tried. She pressed her face too close to the monitor, eyes crossing, then pulled back and shrugged.

"I don't think you can." Rem breathed, leaning closer with an otherworldly long-fingered hand which looked like exposed bones on the back of Misa's chair, "I don't think even I can."

"I see her name, though. Mi-Chi-Ko Ya-Ga-Mi." Misa pointed to the screen just above Michiko's head, tapping at the monitor with her eraser to emphasize every syllable.

"But I? I can't see her face." The shinigami stared, her eyes unseeing, but only when she tried to look at Michiko. "There is no face, no name, for me. Nothing to see but shadows."

"Really? I just thought it was a blurry picture..." Misa mused, dropping the pencil on the keyboard and resting her chin on her manicured hands. "So it's not just me? And there are people that Shinigami can't see. Interesting, Rem! I learn something new about you every day!"

"What are you?" The shinigami asked, touching the monitor and tracing a finger down the image of a young Michiko's cheek.

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* * *

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Ryuzaki returned to the room, stuffing a cellphone into his pocket. He'd been checking a text message from one of his people. A disturbing text message. He took his seat in his usual crouching position with his hands perched on his knees, looking more and more like a disgruntled owl, in Shikako's opinion. "On an interesting note, there is no one by the name of Masashi Kishimoto, whom is known to have written, drawn and published the Naruto manga, by the way. That person does not exist, there is no birth or death records of him at all. It was a fake name, leading back to the front of a manga studio that doesn't actually exist either. Neither do any of the people that are listed as his animating crew. That address housed a Chinese restaurant. Their food is quite good, though, especially the General Tso's chicken. Spicy.

"At any rate, no one knows where this manga is really coming from. The editors at Shounen Jump say that the editor who was in charge of publishing it has never met with the creators of the series. He gets it in the mail, anonymously. They claim it already appears to be a published book, with their logo on it, upon receiving it's pages in magazine format. For some reason, they felt compelled to publish it anyway. It seems to be untraceable, as if it hasn't actually been mailed. They have found no fingerprints. I have people looking into it now. An odd event, to say the least."

"Why were you looking into that, of all things?" Mogi asked, he folded his coat over in his hands as he stared at the man in the seat beside the bed. The heart rate monitor continued to beep reassuringly.

"Well, seeing as Shikako's abilities seem to be so similar as to what is seen in that particular manga, it piqued my interest. I wanted to research the creator and see if he was one of these psychics. Problem is, my people have investigated and it seems he doesn't really exist. Which makes me believe that psychics actually are involved, humorously enough." Ryuzaki said, staring at his hands. "And we're making no headway with the Kira investigation, as things are now, even worse with two Kiras confirmed," this last bit was said in a quietly disheartened voice, which was becoming more common lately.

"You wouldn't happen to know anything about this, would you?" Mogi turned to Shikako. She shook her head in the negative.

"Sorry, no," she said, "I just liked that someone in that story was portrayed as having my ability to form illusions with my hands," she carefully left out the fact that Dan told her about the other Kira. She wondered if and when that would even really happen, and would Dan actually be there at the time to confirm her theory about him?

"The hand signs, yes." Ryuzaki pondered aloud, "Do all psychics need that?"

"Nope." Hideo said, vanishing from sight without having moved at all. He'd been unobtrusively standing in the corner of the room. He then continued, completely invisible, "I don't!" Before returning before their eyes. Mogi blinked at him, still not believing what his eyes were seeing. Or not seeing. The boy vanished again, juggled the remote in his hand, which appeared in mid air, then disappeared when he caught it once more, before he became fully visible again.

"That's amazing!" Matsuda gasped, making a move as if to clap, then realizing he was in the hospital so shouldn't make such noise. He put his hands down, "Heh. It's neat."

"It's just a way to focus my energy. I used to do something similar, because I could feel the psychic energy in my hand..." Shikako clarified with a shrug, crossing her legs at the knees. "Then I read about it in the comic, and thought it was a good exercise to keep my focus. Since that is kinda what they were for in the story. Now I kinda... well, need it."

"So that implies that you don't, actually. Interesting." L said. She let him believe that. With that idea, restraining her would be useless, and he'd never think to try. Not that she couldn't get out, if he managed it somehow.

Agent Rei growled out, "There's no point in watching you at all, you can vanish from sight! You can make things appear and disappear! We can't trust our own eyes! We can't save ourselves from Kira, look at what happened to him!" She pointed at Chief Yagami, laying quietly in the bed, "And we can't do anything productive. This is utterly pointless. I'll be rooming in the tower from now on." She slammed her hand against the door as she left the room. "I'm doing something productive!" She stressed the last word in her growl, all the intensity building up and finally making her snap.

"Where are you heading?" Ukita asked.

"The television studio. I'm getting everything they have on this new ' _Kira number two._ '" she said over her shoulder.

Silently watching the woman leave, Agent Sora stood up, reaching into his coat pocket. He pulled out his cell phone, realized he was still standing in the hospital, nodded to Ryuzaki, and headed out the door after her without a backwards glance.

"I'm heading back. Aizawa needs an update, too." Mogi said, having one last look at the chief before heading out. Matsuda gave them a sad expression, then followed, reassuring them that he'd be back sometime later.

For the first time in days, both Shikako and Light didn't have their guards watching them. She doubted they'd be tailed like that again, now that this had been revealed. It was, as Rei had said, pointless. In one way, it was relieving to know the end result would be more freedom of movement, but at the same time, more suspicion on her head. It didn't matter, in the end. She wistfully glanced out the door and down the hall at the retreating woman who headed towards the exit, fiance in tow. They never did manage to actually go anywhere together and do anything productive anyway, except getting some well needed exercise, so it wasn't too much of a loss considering she'd been a bit of a hindrance in the first place. Well, it hadn't hurt to have a positive outlook, but Rei wasn't taking it well.

L gave them both a curious glance. Light sighed, not even noticing, as he watched the sleeping face of their father, listening to the heart rate monitor beeping alongside the sound of the oxygen hissing. Everyone crowding into the small room seemed to be holding their breath.

"Let me in, let me in!" Sachiko cried, running into the room, pushing past a startled Ukita who had been guarding the entryway from outside. "Dear? Oh, god!" She said, running to the side of the bed and taking her husband's hand. He continued to sleep and she began to cry into his palm. No one could figure out why he wouldn't wake, or why he'd fallen unconscious to begin with, since he'd fallen asleep on the ride to the hospital. Shikako had an ominous feeling. Had it been because of that medicine? Had her impulse to save him doomed him?

A chill ran down Shikako's spine. What if he didn't wake? Feeling cold once more, she slipped her coat back on. Light finally noticed her, "Sis, you're looking really pale. You should go and get some sleep. We'll keep watch." Light told her, a firm hand on her shoulder.

"Sayu is at home, I made her stay. I know she has school tomorrow, and she's missed too much to make up for it... and if she saw him like this, it would break her, I know. With all she's been through, the poor baby." their mother warbled through her tears. "You need to go home and keep an eye on her. _I can't..._ I need to stay... I'm _sorry_. I'm _so, so_ sorry!"

"No, it's _ok_ , mom." Michiko said, rising to her feet. "Uhm... Hideo and I..."

"I will give you both a ride home, don't worry." Ryuzaki said. He bowed to Sachiko but in her distress she didn't seem to notice. "Come with me then. Are you sure you want to stay, Light?"

"Yeah. I will. It's fine." he nodded, "Take my sister home, please. Sayu needs someone to be there for her in the morning." He gave his sister a pleading look. She nodded, knowing there was nothing more they could do here, but he insisted. She also honestly didn't want to leave, but knew they couldn't leave Sayu alone all night. Her mom had had far too many nights without her husband to be able to let go of the worry this was inducing. Michiko headed out the door.

"Hm. All right." Ryuzaki shoved his hands in his pockets. Hideo slipped out of the room before him, and from the look on his face he was very uncomfortable with everything. "It's gotten rather cold in here all of a sudden, anyway." Ryuzaki murmured to himself, crossing his arms over his chest as if to ward off the chill.

Shikako glanced at him, realizing that it really had gotten cold once more. She was feeling the chills again, having not really noticed it consciously, and here she'd thought she'd gotten over whatever that bug was.

Light watched his sister as she walked down the hallway, then turned to stare at a blank patch of wall before him, not seeming to see anything. He murmured something too quiet for her to hear.

L spun in place, then met Light's eyes. "What was that?"

"N-nothing, I mean, just... drive careful. We'll keep watch here and call if he improves." Light stumbled over his words, looking between the wall and Ryuzaki uncertainly.

"Oh, yes. Right. Watari always drives with the utmost of care. Do so. I will leave my phone on. There is also the belt, if you have an emergency, which sends a message directly to Watari." Ryuzaki agreed, giving Light his cell number, before he headed out of the room, hands in his pockets.

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 **Author's Note:** You know what takes me so long when writing? Yeah, I've figured this out! Aside from procrastination, which is actually an important I-can't-skip-that _thinking_ _phase_ for me, It's just a different type of "productive" that doesn't get expressed until it's mentally completed. (Which is weird because I can spit out completed ficlets from forum prompts the moment I read them. Not saying they're any _good_ but...)

About 60% or more of what I first write gets _deleted_. Yep. Gone. Apparently that's normal for a lot of writers.

Then the approximate 40% or less that's left of that gets combined with the second draft. The rest that is written afterward only gets thought about for a long time before actually getting typed up, coming out smelling like roses. (Or at least less like fertilizer, I swear.) I'm a weird writer. I think it through, then type it out real long and fast, and after getting the kinks out of it first I then write up a final draft. If I'm splicing together scenes like Dr Frankenstein putting together a fresh monster from stuff I've written before and making them work together (It's _alive_!) then that happens when editing.

It's all plot and character interactions for the most part, and minor details get added in editing, which is like buffing it until it looks good. I've kinda been using this story to try to analyze my writing style and my writing habits and to try to figure out how to improve, and be more productive. And yeah, I did choose a cliffhanger moment to take some time out and figure that through, for my own selfish self, because writers are evil.


	15. Chapter 15: Confrontation

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 **Author's Note to answer Afan's Guest question:** Nukka was a water tribe member but not a bender, she was Katara's sister and Sokka's twin. (I asked at the forum a while back and got that confirmed.)

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Also, thank you all for all the helpful feedback! I have a feeling some of you are going to hate me in a minute... if not now, then come next chapter...

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 **Dreaming of Death Note Chapter 15: Confrontation**

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"You realize any evidence I have proving your innocence is useless now that we know you can manipulate what is seen, correct?" the man asked her on the ride to her house. Hideo had mysteriously vanished on the way to the vehicle. They assumed he had somewhere to be. Michiko had his phone number if she needed him.

"No, actually. It only manipulates what you think you see. Video cameras still capture what is really there." She corrected, staring out the window. She was never going to admit to the Hidden In The Mist jutsu.

Things weren't going as she'd expected. Had Kira done something to her father? Why? She wondered what Light was thinking, and what he might be planning, if it was true that he was Kira. She honestly couldn't deny it for much longer, though everything screamed at her that it just wasn't right. He just didn't give off that vibe to her. Was the boy that good of an actor? Then she realized what she'd just heard, "Wait... you have evidence proving my innocence?" She stared at him and he stared right back with his dark eyes, though now she could see the whites in them easily.

"Ah, did I say that?" He quickly turned to the window dismissively.

"You did. You said that." she glared at his reflection in the window, "What are you playing at?"

"I see. You are angry. I must still be _drunk_. Regardless, it is like genjutsu, this psychic power of yours. So I suppose we will call it that, then." Ryuzaki touched his lip once more, pondering the possibilities. "You... could you... do that again?"

"Why?" she elongated the word as she said it, drawing it out slowly.

"I want to experience a genjutsu," he stared at her through the corner of his eye, and met her gaze through the window's reflection.

"Of what?" she asked in a flat voice.

He was quick to say, "Oh, you pick. It alters the senses, right? How about taste?"

 _'I know where this is going.'_

"Hm. How about no?" she said playfully, brows raised. She gripped the edge of the seat and leaned forward, shaking her head. Her dark brown hair fell in her eyes.

"But I want to, Shikako. You can do that for me. How about a genjutsu involving... say... all the candy I can eat?" the man implored. The begging whine in his voice gave away the fact he was excited.

She rolled her eyes. He had whined. With a sad look on his face. The proverbial puppy dog.

He actually made a whining noise. _Twice_.

 _'Well, what could it hurt?'_

He watched her, and he was suddenly smiling, looking hopeful, as if he already knew she was going to give in. With a resigned sigh, she quickly ran through the hand signs, and put him in a genjutsu, just to humor him. His eyes glazed over. Watari watched her through the rear-view mirror, but all she could see of his face was his wrinkled eyes. She tossed him a glance and a wave. He went back to watching the road with a shake of his head.

 _'You want a genjutsu? Have a genjutsu. There!'_

She stuck him in a ten minute genjutsu- as a tiny kid in a candy store.

He can see it, smell it, and almost taste it... but he can't reach the counter, or the displays. No candy for him. "Hah."

She noted it was getting easier to use her chakra, with all the practice she'd been getting. She wasn't feeling as exhausted as she had been even just a week ago. Her reserves seemed to be growing with more use.

The drive was pleasant and silent, until Ryuzaki jumped up in his seat exactly ten minutes later and glared at her.

"Shikako, you are childish and evil. The probability of you being Kira is now ninety-nine point ninety-five percent." the vehicle pulled up to her house and rolled to a screeching stop. Watari tipped his hat at her, through the rear-view mirror.

"Go kiss a snake," she shot back at Ryuzaki with a laugh, climbing out of the car.

"That would be inadvisable. And unsanitary. And proves my point that-" Shikako slammed the car door in his face. Watari took off towards the facility L was staying at after the girl entered her house. The light was already on in the living room, so Sayu must have been up and waiting for her.

"-that you are also childish." L pouted to himself the entire drive back, arms crossed over his chest protectively, back curled against the car's leather seat as he pulled his feet up onto the edge of it. Not a single grain of sugar, all day. He was not feeling well. This would not do. He could practically feel his brain cells deciding to turn off for the day, simply out of protest.

Watari and L entered their building, turning on the lights. They got past the security provisions and headed into L's private living quarters.

"Watari, could I get some tea, it's been a long day." He ran a hand through his unruly black hair. It stood on end, though he didn't notice.

"I... will try. Based on recent experience, I can no longer trust that what I see and am doing is actually what is going on, now." The old man sounded serious, but the two of them both knew he was really just joking to lighten the mood.

"I understand. Do your best then. With lemon. And plenty of sugar. And-" he let out a long, tired yawn, "-ah! Some honey."

"Will do." Watari nodded.

"Make that for two, please," came a deep voice from in the corner behind them.

The two detectives spun to face the newcomer. A lamp lit up beside a tall blonde man who was wearing a silver suit that glimmered with sequins and metallic threads in the yellow light. Very gaudy. He wouldn't have been out of place in Las Vegas. It was reminiscent of something that an Elvis impersonator would like to wear to work. He leaned on the arm of one of L's red and white striped wing-backed chairs with a grin on his face, and waved at L in a friendly manner.

"You can sit. We can chat. How about that, Lawliet?" Dan asked, then he turned to Watari, "And I would also like some of those chocolate topped cookies, Wammy! Thanks much."

From out of his jacket, Watari pulled out a gun and leveled it at the psychic's chest, letting off the safety. "I think not. You have us at a disadvantage, in knowing our names... Mister...?"

"Oh, can't we be civil? I guess this means you don't want to fetch cookies. Fine. The name is Onni Dan Lane. Not that that matters." He said, with an over pronounced shrug of his shoulder, "And from here on out, I propose a new rule: guns don't work. Isn't that grand? I'd be able to kill you myself before you had the chance to do any-"

Watari pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened.

"-thing. My, you are a quick one." Ryuzaki backed away towards the door. The man before him was oozing smugness. The door slammed shut on it's own behind him. There was something strange about the room, now that he noticed. Ryuzaki was so used to people being here, he didn't notice anything odd until it was too late. The room was too busy, for being empty. It had an odd feel to it. He fell into a ready stance, prepared to fight. Dan laughed at him, "But not fast enough. Physics, you see, are on my side tonight. Sit. Talk. Tea. Cookies. Now." Dan snapped his finger, and a tray containing everything Ryuzaki and Dan had asked for appeared beside him, resting in the chair. "Well, isn't that neat?"

Dan picked up the tray, then gingerly set it on the table between them. He turned to Ryuzaki, "I want you to work for me, L. The best detective in the world. You're psychic, aren't you? That's the only reason. Well that, and I want to unite all the psychics, and make us a force to be reckoned with!" he said while taking a seat where the tray had appeared and picking up a steaming hot cup in his gloved hand. He blew on the liquid, smirking at the two wide-eyed men across from him. They didn't seem to know what to make of this development.

"How do you know our names?" Watari queried uneasily. This was not something he liked to leave unknown. If he had discovered them through some form of record, they would need to be dealt with immediately.

With his left hand, Dan tapped the left side of his own forehead, with a wide grin. "Psychic. Simple enough. Nothing to fear, I simply am _in the know_."

"You're quite perceptive!" Ryuzaki gave him a smile, touching a finger to his own chin in thought. "Also quite arrogant. You're the first one other than Watari to notice on his own. That's right. I am one of the psychics." L waited a moment before continuing, assessing Dan's narrowed eyes. He decided to continue, figuring if the man really was psychic, he'd know anyway, and if not, there was no harm in it now. "I can occasionally tell what people are feeling. Emotions. Even deeply hidden ones. There are plenty to feel and sort through, so it's quite distracting with too many people close. I don't really have emotions of my own, when I can't often tell mine from that of others, so I borrow some from others. I use them sparingly." He shoved his hands in to his pockets and looked away, "Also, I don't just work for anyone. I need a reason, though I don't always need payment." He let that sit in the air between them. It sounded like an inside joke. L was the one smirking, as he looked back at the blond man.

Watari sighed, knowing that was a pitiful explanation, and nothing more would be forthcoming. Usually this is where people start questioning things, like how the powers work, and this was where Watari assumed Dan would ask about the 'borrowing' part. Instead, Dan gave them a genuine smile over the teacup in his hand, "I know. And I also know that everyone at Wammy's house is also psychic. You have your own psychic children working for you. You're doing the same thing I am, Wammy. Aren't you?"

With a nod, the man lowered his gun. "That's true. I brought the most powerful minds in the world together, under one roof. I thought we could do amazing things with such people working in unison. And we truly have. We have been using our powers to solve the world's crimes, to prevent utter disaster, as well." Watari admitted, "One case at a time. Though I must admit, I myself am a mere inventor. An investor, if you would. An investment in our future. My inventions sell to fund the project. Project Wammy. We, however, don't use _international terrorism as our calling card_." he resolutely admonished.

"Well, we have different means to our ends. Regardless, let's unite our efforts. Now, let's talk about this person called 'Kira'. Isn't she lovely?" the intruder said.

"She? You mean Michiko?" Watari asked Dan, his fluffy brows raised up into his hairline, well aware he was using her real name.

Dan smiled at the old man with his eyes crinkling expressively. "Amusing. I know who Kira is. Well, who the Kiras are." Dan smirked, an expression that was becoming an unconscious habit for him, "I tried to get her to see it, but the poor little girl was just too stubborn to listen. She doesn't... belong. Here, I mean. This place just doesn't suit her." Dan exhaled through his nose loudly, smirk still in place.

L could tell he didn't mean the Investigation Headquarters, when he said 'here' but something else, something bigger. "What do you mean?" L asked, curiosity piqued.

"Oh, there is much more to the world than what we can see, Lawliet!" Dan nodded. "Surely you know that as well, being psychic. She's the kind of person with firsthand experience, in that area. But even knowing that, things didn't come out the way I'd assumed. That's admittedly unusual for me. Anyway, it's not her, but Kira is someone _not_ that I had seen."

"You are claiming Michiko is not Kira?" Ryuzaki asked with his head tilted to the side. "I wondered about her. She's one of the few people whose emotions aren't always in-sync with that which is displayed. She gives me the feel of someone who is hiding something, constantly. No... habitually." He lowered his tone, in the voice he usually used to speak to himself, "Though I thought that was just her hiding in plain sight, the fact that she or Light were Kira. She did inject herself rather forcefully into this investigation, all on her own, early on. No points in her favor, there."

"Heavens, no! She's been wondering why everyone thinks her brother is Kira! Don't be surprised by her abruptness. She likes to get to the point." Dan laughed. Watari took a careful seat on the couch, keeping his hand gun out and pointed at the floor between them. Ryuzaki moved to follow, keeping Dan across from them. He sat in a crouch on the couch. "She's known all along that's not true. She's too perceptive when scrutinizing others to think otherwise. That girl gives me a headache on a good day, just trying to stay a few moves ahead of her. Honestly, I think I can't. That's probably why I like her. She does like her secrets, and even I don't know all of them. You both threw her off, by insisting Kira was Light. Silly of you. Fun to watch, though." He said, wrinkles appearing around his eyes, "Then again, when all the evidence collected points to a penguin; the black and white, the love of fish and ice, and the distinctive waddle and sound... you assume it's a penguin."

"So it's not Light Yagami?" L wondered.

Watari continued in that same vein, "Well then, who is Kira?"

"Oh, this is fun, fun! First though, have you heard of Misa Amane?" queried the blond man. He took a sip of his tea.

With a shrug, L reached for a cup, and from the tray he confiscated a tall pile of sugar cubes in a large glass bowl. L said, "Model. Actress. I'm guessing that she's involved." Dan nodded, glad that the other man was following the conversation.

"Ab-so-lute-ly." Dan confirmed in a sing-song voice.

Dan carefully watched as Ryuzaki plopped sugar cube after sugar cube into his tea, going far beyond any reasonable amount, while he ate one of the chocolate covered cookies. Taken aback by this strange action, Dan went quiet.

Watari silently judged that it was not a good idea to drink that, sweetened or otherwise, and silently conveyed his mistrust through his emotions to his over eager charge. The grip on Watari's gun never wavered, though his hand clenched. He didn't turn the safety off. L knew there was something comforting about holding it, the device acting as a security blanket for the old man, even though it had proven useless in their current predicament. He kept the barrel pointed forward.

The fact that Watari was radiating agitation was not lost to L. He could absolutely feel it. Neither was the odd shimmer through the corner of his eye as if there were heatwaves present against the far wall across the room. Curiosity flooded from it as if from another mind. It was probably a psychic power, and if Ryuzaki was judging it right, that spot hid another invisible person.

This tea, he noticed, didn't vanish on him. Excellent. It did, however, spill over the edge of the cup as he'd put far too many sugar cubes in it. Living dangerously he took a grateful sip, having filled the tea cup to the brim with sugar cubes that still had yet to dissolve, he could barely get the tea into his mouth through the cubes that threatened to fall out of the cup and onto his lip. L closed his dark-rimmed eyes in contentment. He got his sugar fix. Finally.

Watari's emotions fluttered between panic, irritation, and resignation.

In L's opinion, it was the best sugar (masquerading as tea) that he'd ever tasted.

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It was three minutes later when the heart rate monitor let out a steady, final pulse. Startled by the sudden noise, Ryuk jumped up from his resting pose against the metal foot-board at the end of the bed. He climbed to his feet, his black boots tapping on the floor, then turned to stare as the life seeped out of the human on the bed before him. A wide, sharp toothed grin crossed his face, yellow and red eyes bulging.

Sachiko sobbed into the bed sheets as the nurses rushed in to try to save her husband. She wouldn't move to give them room to work, clutching at him desperately. Light finally pulled her away so they could use the defibrillator.

Amid the chaos of the noise of the equipment and the many voices erupting throughout the room as they tried to revive him, the amused laughter of one Shinigami was present.

With Light holding Soichiro's other hand, his mother refused to let go, long after the majority of the hospital staff had cleared the room and placed a sheet over her husband's face.

Light stepped back and leaned against the wall, and Ryuk heard him murmuring angrily to himself once more. He slid to the floor, smacking the back of his head against the wall once, twice, three times, as if to rid his mind of what he was seeing. He closed his eyes and cried. He shoved away the nurses who tried to console him. "This never should have happened!" he yelled.

Ryuk laughed as Soichiro died, having backed away when the people came in, he stood observing the human bustle from the corner of the room.

Ryuk could hear Light quietly vowing revenge. A human on a revenge streak was always something good to watch.

 _'Humans are so much fun, especially when they suffer.'_

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On American television, the first Psychic Children's broadcast began a day early. Before L or Watari could contact anyone in the government to warn them. Soichiro's heart attack had distracted them, and they didn't manage to contact any governments to warn them. They thought they had time, and that Shikako's contact had made plans. Yuko had never gotten the word out, as Misa had seen to that.

Because of Misa, only Japan saw the broadcast from 'Kira' claiming Dan's message was false. As an end result, the citizens were too scared to do anything against the psychics when it became apparent they were real. They were already in fear and awe of Kira himself. Attacks on psychics after the reveal were minimal in Japan, compared to everywhere else. The rest of the world didn't know what to think, at first. It spread like a virus online, on video sites. Everyone began to believe these people really were with Kira. They began to blame them for the loss of their loved ones.

The broadcasts were simultaneous and different, depending upon the location.

In Taiwan the psychics predicted an earthquake, to the precise location and measurements, hours before there was any seismic activity of note. The quake occurred exactly to the second that it was predicted, and so did its aftershocks. This warning saved people from an incoming wall of water as an end result. They predicted which three buildings would tumble and fall right to which floors would still be left standing, in pieces.

People started noting the truth in the predictions... they began to panic.

Little things, like lotto numbers.

Big things like bridges collapsing and natural disasters.

Smaller scale things, like house fires.

Missing people, found just in time to save them, precisely where the psychics said they'd be.

Everyone saw the messages. People weren't immediately convinced it was real. It was aired on every station, as each prediction came in, accurately depicting the as-then-unknown future, as they claimed to see it. It was the predictions that people noticed. Then the psychics, emboldened, came out of the woodwork. They thought they really had Kira's protection. They didn't need to hide anymore.

It was the children the world saw first, as Dan himself had predicted. They were fearless, because this was _fun_. They flaunted their abilities, but this was what people feared even more. The ones who were different. Children finally saw themselves as they were on the news, rather than as depicted in cartoons. They loved it. Many rushed to be acknowledged. The adults were more hesitant to show themselves. They stayed hidden longer, reserving their own judgement, and getting angry at the children for rushing into it.

When children started flying in downtown Manhattan, people on the ground took notice.

"It'sha burd! It'sha plane! It'shuper Matt!" came the gleeful, impossibly loud cry of a six year old, flying from building to building, like the famed superman. He tapped on office windows and left finger smudges on the outside of the glass as office workers gawked at him, thirty floors up.

Three more children followed him, taking his cue. One of them sped through traffic, running faster than the cars could drive, saying that she was 'the flash!' Her feet left indents in the road, and the cars she passed crashed into each other in their haste to avoid her. She only stopped to laugh at them and catch her breath before moving at such impossible speeds through the next intersection. Her sobbing mother kept begging her to stop and come back to her.

Another boy could jump as high as the third floor, and land without any injury. He jumped like a grass hopper, following behind the other two at a slower but just as energetic pace.

They attracted the attention of a local news crew, and their antics were filmed on live television.

One of them was shot in the chest, point blank with a pistol, the moment she came to a sudden halt in front of a man who had been smoking a cigarette, breathing heavily. This happened as the majority of the panicked mob of protesters and gawkers hit the street. The mother screamed for her child, but it was drowned out in the noise. The Kira supporters had cheered on the psychics as they had passed earlier, and chanted Kira's name. Violent mobs began fighting in the streets, attacking the Kira supporters and psychics alike.

Her body almost got lost in the crowd, their angry feet stomping the pavement. The photo of her tiny body laying on the road in a puddle of her own blood, her mother crying over her with blood on her face, was snapped by a passing motorist on his cellphone. He uploaded it and it went viral overnight to become an iconic image representing this abrupt turning point in human evolution.

She wasn't the last psychic to die, that day or the next. There were even more who weren't psychic, falling at each other's indiscriminate feet.

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 **Author's Note:** Here's the point where you guys are gonna definitely start connecting the dots, if you haven't already. I've been leaving a candy trail. Did you catch it? I'm trying to improve on how much I keep and how much I drop, to make the story remain interesting and still have a few hopefully unexpected but foreshadowed events. I tend to be long-winded on a good day, so that's a lot of cutting of walls-of-text. I'm surprised this chapter is as long as it is, considering half of it is gone, but some of that got moved to the next one so that there would be two longer and seamless scenes, one per chapter. Still editing that for clarity and fine tuning some things to make the scenes in the next chapter seamless.

Also, my personal comment on this chapter: "Here's a psychic, there's a psychic, everyone can have a psychic! Collect the whole set!"

But really, the Death Note world has an inherent power in it, as shown in Death Note canon- the most telling being Beyond Birthday being born with the Shinigami Eyes yet having never been in contact with a Death Note, and the fact that Shinigami do not reproduce at all, so he can't be a descendant of one. So, I'm allowing it to manifest in this manner. It makes sense, to me.


	16. Chapter 16: Fickle Things

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 **Dreaming of Death Note Chapter 16: Fickle Things**

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 **Author's Note:** Here we go, this is a scene that I had planned for a long time...

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Meanwhile...

Upon leaving L's vehicle, Shikako headed into the house, announcing her arrival. There was an extra pair of shoes in the entryway. They were small adult sized, stylish and black, and shiny like dress shoes. She had never seen them before. She switched out her shoes for house slippers at the genkan and headed into the family room.

Finding Sayu in the living room, she was met with an unfamiliar sight. A beautiful blonde girl in a lacy black gothic dress was sitting on the couch, munching on a cracker. Sayu was sitting beside her, holding a pair of teacups, one of which she handed to the girl.

Shikako stepped into the room, about to ask who this person was, when a viciously cold chill rand down her back. She met the girl's eyes, and froze.

They were red. Glowing red.

Not a sharingan, but something. Something else. Sayu didn't seem to even notice.

"There you are, Michiko!" Sayu said in an overly loud voice as the girl paused in her chewing to stare at the new arrival. "Come and meet my new friend! Her name is Misa!"

Misa swallowed, smiled, and gave a half bow in her seat, carefully cradling the teacup in her hand.

"Nice to meet you, Michiko Yagami! I'm Misa Amane! Yuko told me all about you, you know." she said in a very prim and proper type of voice.

"She's a star, like Yuko! They were in a movie together! Isn't that awesome!" Sayu said, bouncing in her seat. Michiko wondered if Sayu even knew anything had happened to their father yet.

"Nice to meet you, Misa. Sorry, but Sayu, I need to talk to you..." Michiko said, calling her sister over with an beckoning wave.

Sayu looked up with suddenly sad eyes. She didn't move from her seat. "Oh, I know. Mom told me. Dad had a heart attack. Then, Misa said he died." She no longer looked like she was even feeling anything with how her eyes had gone dull and flat, and her voice was once again devoid of emotion, like she had been for a while after her friends had died, when she wasn't yelling at the world around her. It was a complete turn around from the excited expression she'd just been sporting.

 _'She had known? Then why was she just sounding ...happy?'_

"He didn't die! He's not going to die. He's taken special medicine. It won't happen." She reassured her sister, having just come from the hospital after seeing him still alive and stable, "And how... do you know...?" She looked at the red eyed girl again, and saw her eyes had faded from glowing to merely red in color. Odd.

"If he didn't die, then he will. I'm sorry." Misa said, bowing once more but this time it was apologetically, "I wrote his name in my Death Note. I didn't realize you were related to Kira, or I never would have... I'm terribly sorry!"

"Related to... Kira? So you think that, too?" Sayu grit her teeth at her sister's words but covered it by smirking at her.

Misa continued, "From what Yuko said, it sounded like you were against Kira, so I was misunderstanding things. I can't fix what I've done, Rem said we can't do that. I'm sorry... about Yuko, too. I killed her."

Sayu gave a little gasp, spinning in her seat to face Misa, "You did? That sucks."

"I know. I'm sorry! It was something I did really fast when I was angry." Misa apologized again. Sayu gave her a concerned glance, but nodded as if agreeing finally. She set her tea down on the table. _'Why is Sayu ok with this?'_

Shikako's blood had gone cold when she heard that, "You killed my friend?"

Misa meekly nodded. Shikako's killing intent slammed into the others in the room and made them gasp. She hadn't unleashed anything like that in this world before, and it took her a moment to reign it in. The two girls on the couch looked up in surprise, breathing rapidly. Sayu had fallen back against the sofa's arm. "What... was that?" Misa asked.

Sayu groaned, then sat back up. There was a shuffling noise behind Shikako, when she reached forward and grabbed Misa's shoulder, clutching her tightly, "How did you kill Yuko?"

The girl's words came quickly, her voice pained, "I had my Death Note on me at the time, and I just got so mad when she talked about Kira..." Misa looked at her hands, covered in see-through, black silk laced fingerless gloves. She raised her mascara rimmed red eyes back to Shikako and blinked back tears.

 _'Death Note...'_ Shikako wondered, _'Where have I heard that before?'_ Could it have been something from a past life, something important relating to this world? She couldn't quite tell. She released the girl's shoulders, mostly because if she gripped her any tighter she'd have to pop them back into place.

"And who is Rem?" Shikako asked, stepping back once. Her shadow snapped silently at the leg of the coffee table like a whip as she set her foot down. The coldness in the room crept closer, making her shiver and goosebumps raised on her arms. Something was happening. Misa shook her head in the negative, looking over Shikako's shoulder, eyes watering. She was probably in pain from the bruise that would be forming on her shoulder.

"Misa, Michiko didn't know." Sayu stated in a whisper, shaking her head in her sister's direction, hands upraised as if to settle her down, as if they would attack one another.

Misa let out a small 'Oh!' sound and covered her mouth, hiding a horrified expression. "I messed up, again." she said, her voice small.

"No. It's ok. It's about time anyway. I was planning on it, after all. Michiko, you're right, there's something you need to know..." Sayu started. She turned to look at her sister, folding her hands in her lap. "It's about a notebook called a Death Note."

Shikako pursed her lips, as if the words tasted bad, "Death Note?"

"You need to touch it!" Sayu said. "That way, you'll know. You'll be able to see Rem!"

"Rem, who is this Rem?" Shikako asked as she looked from her sister to the blonde stranger seated on the couch. Sayu picked up a book from the couch beside her, it had been sitting unobtrusively on the cushion between them.

"Rem is a Shinigami." Misa said. "Touch my Death Note and you'll be able to see her."

Sayu held the book up for Michiko to touch. It had strange white writing in letters she couldn't recognize across the cover.

With a careful grip, Michiko's hand wrapped around the cover of the thin black book, and Sayu let it go.

That's when it hit her. With a gasp, she said, "It was..."

Something in her mind, akin to a vibrant red light, flashed before her eyes. The same red that was in Misa's eyes. Then she remembered. How could she have forgotten? All of this time! Panic filled her mind. _She should not have forgotten this!_

Michiko headed out on her bike, as fast as she could. She was racing the clock, but she knew she could get there in time. She finally made it to Light's school just as the bell was ringing. She was on her way to pick up the workplace uniform next, for that new job she'd only just signed up for, so was passing by his school. She'd volunteered to deliver it, when her mother mentioned Light's mistake that morning in forgetting his lunch.

She chained her bike up outside. As she headed into the school building, she looked up seeing the overhead clock was reading noon, and waited until his class had finished and filtered out of the room. Light stepped out, putting a notebook away in his bag. "Sis! What are you doing here?"

She held up the bento by a green and white striped cloth wrapped around it, "You forgot your lunch!"

"Oh! Thank you! I can't believe I didn't even realize that." Light looked surprised, then glanced at his bag, finally noticing something was missing. He took the lunch with his free hand, saying, "Wow, you really packed it heavy this time."

"Growing boys need good food, right? Working hard? Study much?" Michiko smirked, smacking him on the arm as he watched a passing girl who was staring at him strangely. The girl looked like Light had stabbed her in the back, with how she was glaring daggers his way. "Hey, I'm over here." Michiko stated, going so far as to wave a hand in front of his face. Light readily looked back to his sister.

"Sorry, that was an acquaintance of mine. She keeps asking me to go on a date with her, though I've turned her down since I don't want to date until I get into the University at last. I think she thinks you're my girlfriend, though. That's kinda... awkward." Light winced when Michiko gave him a wide smile, showing way too much teeth. He suddenly got a bad feeling, and was proven right with her narrowing eyes.

"Oh, now, we can't have that, little bro!" Michiko waved down the hallway at the girl, who was standing off to the side with her arms crossed, observing their interactions. Light almost dropped his lunchbox when Michiko brashly smacked him on the back and pushed him forward, shouting, "HEY! You!" She rudely pointed at the girl, who gave her a deer-in-the-headlights look, "Yeah, you! Have lunch with my little brother, I packed plenty!"

"SIS!" Light jumped as she forcefully pushed him forward. "Oh. My. God. I'm sorry!" he said to the girl, "My sister is insane." he apologized. She shoved him down the hall, but he tried to dig his heels in and his indoor school shoes did nothing to slow their approach, sliding him across the smooth floor instead, until he was face to face with the blushing girl, inches from her nose.

"I also packed him a huge lunch, so there's plenty for two!" Michiko said to the girl from around Light's shoulder.

"Hehe. That's fine," the girl said, suddenly happy at this revelation. Light's face was turning red. The girl might have been too close to him to see that, though.

A black haired, droopy-eyed boy down the hallway whistled, speaking up, "If he won't share with her, I'll eat some! You a good cook?"

That got the whole hallway to chuckle at the couple as the girl took Light's arm and led him down a staircase towards the cafeteria. He turned back to his sister with a pleading look, but she just smiled and waved him away. The guy that called to her watched her walk away, wistfully sighing in her direction, "Was worth a shot," she heard him mutter to the guffaws of his classmates.

Michiko grinned then headed outside, having successfully messed with her brother that day. (Revenge was probably going to come to her later in the petty form of her favorite bra on the top of a flagpole somewhere, but she could always buy a new one and deny, deny, deny. Just as he would deny the petty prank. She never should have taught him the fine art of pranking.)

On her way back to her bike, a sparkle from above caught her eye. A shimmer of light, as something reflecting the sunlight fell from the sky.

Curious, she headed to the middle of the open courtyard to inspect the fallen object.

Standing over the smooth black square in the grass, she realized it was a book. She picked it up, and read the cover, "Death Note?" She opened it, reading, "The human whose name is written in this note shall die. Huh. That's different."

She stared up through the glare of the noonday sun and inspected the empty sky, then watched the open courtyard around her. There was no one else here, and nothing else that could have deposited this strange book in this place. She could have sworn she'd seen it falling from the clouds. No, there was no disputing it, she _had_ seen it.

There were no names written in the book, yet.

She wouldn't put it past this world for something like this to be real. She'd been waiting for the next strange thing. With the fact that she could use chakra, and her previous encounters with a local psychic... anything was up for grabs as a possibility. She wondered if this might be related to her not being able to get seals to work in this world. A book, that responds to the user? Was it chakra based, a fuinjutsu of some sort? Had she found the answer she was seeking?

Curiosity winning out, she gave the area one last once over then shoved it in her bag and headed on her way. She would analyze it later.

She didn't get a chance to. Her sister had found it in her bag after she got home, inviting herself into her sister's things because she was wanting to borrow a pencil sharpener after her pencil had broken. "What's this?"

"Oh... that." Michiko put down the bowl she was holding. She'd been tossing the salad for that night's dinner, as her sister was sitting at the table across from her, working on her math homework. She shrugged, "It's just a book that fell from the sky today." She said in a joking voice.

"A what? Cool!"

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"You really shouldn't be playing with things like that!" Michiko admonished as she and Sayu headed into her bedroom, tossing the Death Note on her computer desk. She had taken it from her sister's hands as they walked upstairs, having caught her little sister holding it when Michiko got home from her new job the next day. She'd left it hidden in her room, but Sayu was pretty good at finding things that should have stayed hidden, so she'd had to hide her diary quite well, though the girl hadn't yet found it. She probably should have put the Death Note with it, come to think of it. Otherwise she would have to think up better hiding places for her things.

Her little sister was always giving out the impression that she just doesn't pay attention, doesn't care, or isn't as intelligent as her siblings, acting just like her air-headed friends, but she was pretty smart, too. It was in her genes, and only a direct comparison between her and her siblings made her seem more average, that and her obvious youth made for an unfair comparison. It seemed that the girl was going the same route Shikamaru once had, and was intentionally getting average grades, probably not wanting to compete with expectations her parents might have had of her. They were constantly having to harp on her to get her homework done.

Michiko had taped the book to the back of her standing mirror, but Sayu had snuck in and taken it, then brought it over to her bedroom and shared it with her friends, Kimiko and Midori. "Honestly, what if it was real? You could have gotten yourself- or your friends- killed."

Sayu snorted, chuckling, "Wow, are you paranoid, or what? It's not real. It's a joke book. Obviously. You act like 'magic' is real. And you're the one that swears there's no such thing as the Easter bunny and Santa Clause! Midori just wrote that stuff as a joke, because that's what it's for. It's got a million rules written out in it, and they're all so complicated and stupid, no one would believe-"

Michiko cut her off, "I don't care, I haven't read all of those, yet. But, you know what? I'm just going to burn it. Then there will be no problem." She stared her sister down.

 _'And if that book had anything to do with this world's story line, then that will put an end to that.'_

"You can't burn it!" Sayu protested, looking toward the book in horror. This was the first time she'd ever heard her bookworm, knowledge-obsessed older sister say 'Burn' and 'Book' in the same sentence without referencing how much of a shame it would be to lose knowledge like that.

"Yes, I can. It's mine, and I will." Michiko stated with an air of finality. She turned to her closet, "And actually, I have a few other things that need burned. It's really time to empty out this closet."

"Uh, hello! Strange book falls out of the sky, where there's no sky scrapers to speak of, and no flying vehicles overhead, not even a drone! You think that's a random chance? I think it came from an angel!" Sayu joked, fingering the edge of the paper of the Death Note, flipping through the pages from bottom to top as she wistfully examined it.

Now it was Michiko's turn to snort in laughter, "You're being silly. Why would an angel give a human a book that kills people, anyways?"

"Angels have bloody swords." This quiet and contemplative comment made Michiko pause. Just what was her sister into lately? That didn't sound normal. She tossed an old paint stained shirt that was hanging in the back of her closet into what she'd now dubbed 'the burn pile' at Sayu's feet near the desk. That old shirt had been in there for three years too long, at this point.

Sayu sat on the computer chair and spun in place, watching her sister rifle through her closet and toss things in the 'burn pile'. She occasionally got rid of things that didn't fit anymore and had been worn ragged with all her obsessive exercises, usually biking and running. A pair of jeans with friction holes worn on the inside of the legs from running in them every morning followed the shirt into the pile. Sayu thought they could have been cut into shorts, but didn't comment. "Just let it go, sis. I'm cleaning out the room and getting rid of some things. Some of this stuff is going in the burn pile, and that book is going too."

"Whatever." Sayu groaned. Michiko grabbed her old jean jacket that had been hanging in the closet and emptied out the pockets, finding some loose change which she tossed on her bed.

Michiko grabbed her duffel bag and pulled out her new clothes, setting them carefully on the bed. She pulled out the jacket for her pizza delivery job and held it up for inspection, "Hey, I want to get a new jacket. Why do you get one and I don't? Though... yours is kinda gaudy. I don't want anything ugly like that!" Sayu squinted at the orange and black thing in her sister's hands.

"Well, I needed to get a new jacket, too, so at least this new job provided one. I dunno though, it looks... I'll generously say 'cute,' to me. I've been meaning to replace this old thing, so I guess now is a good time. It's looking a bit ragged." Michiko tossed her old jean jacket on top of the burn pile next to her computer desk. Sayu looked down at it curiously.

While her sister was busy laying out her outfit with the funny looking orange and black jacket for the next day, Sayu grabbed the tossed garment from the trash pile and held it up before her, folded neatly in half. She cleared her throat to get her sister's attention, "Is this mine now, then, can I keep it? You don't want it anymore, right? You were wanting to just get rid of it! I'll take it, if you want to relinquish ownership of it."

"That's a weird way of saying it. But... sure, I don't want it anymore, so I'll pass it on to you. I didn't know you were interested in my hand-me-downs, you're always going on about getting the new clothes from the more expensive department stores!" She gave her sister a speculative look, running her words through her head again. It had sounded very strange, a very formal way of wording it. Her eyes roamed across the bedroom, then landed on the desk. The surface of the desk was empty.

"Thanks, sis!" Sayu hopped up from the chair and fled the room, heading for her own bedroom before Michiko could say anything more.

Michiko surveyed the room and realized something was missing. She just couldn't remember what.

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The Shinigami looked up at her, when she entered the room, "Thanks for waiting out of sight, Ryuk!"

Ryuk snickered, having listened in, "So that's what you wanted me to wait here for, human. Heh. Tricksy."

"You heard her, Ryuk. She owned the book but she doesn't want it anymore. She's giving it to me. She's relinquished the right to it, and handed over ownership." Sayu said, unfolding the cloth of the coat so that the Shinigami could see the Death Note nestled inside it.

"Heheh. Humans. SO _interesting_!" Ryuk knew Michiko had already forgotten everything she knew about the Death Note as ownership passed hands- from Michiko to Sayu.

"So, Ryuk, now that that's done... I need to know so I can fix this- how do I undo the Death Note so my friends don't die? Now that you're here, I _know_ it's real, so I need to know right now! You're my Shinigami now, so you _have_ to tell me!" Sayu stared up at the leather clad Shinigami expectantly.

"Huh?" Ryuk blinked at the teenage girl stupidly, "You want to erase their names from the Death Note so they don't die?"

She nodded in appreciation that he was following what she said, "That's right! Now, how do I do it?"

"Sorry, Kid." He said with a wicked, dark grin. "They're _dead_. Once a name is written in my Death Note, there's no taking it back"

Sayu's face fell from smiling to blank. She couldn't process it. She clutched the notebook in her hands. They began to tremble. "You... _you're kidding_. That's not a funny joke, Ryuk."

The Shinigami laughed. " _Humans_! Hahah! I knew this would be entertaining!"

While folding some of her clothes as she cleaned out her closet, Michiko paused mid-motion. She felt like she'd forgotten something again, but she just wasn't certain what. With a shrug, she figured it would come back to her eventually. She had some clothes to get rid of.

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"It was... me." Shikako gasped, "I first picked up the Death Note." She stared at the black book in her hands, her mind superimposing the memory of the English language letters to the words "Death Note" over the strange white writing seen on this one. She had first held a different book. That meant there were two of them. Two books, two Kiras. Just like Dan said, this was proof of a second one.

"Yep! Then you gave it to me!" Sayu giggled. She grabbed another cheese covered cracker and bit into it while staring at her sister in an amused fashion. She talked with her mouth full, "Though you didn't know you did that, did you? I _got_ you, there!"

Michiko shook her head abruptly, her hair smacking into her face as she did so, "I didn't... I don't remember giving it to you! I was going to burn it!"

"Ok, that's cuz I hid it in that jacket you gave me. I thought it was cool but you said you were going to burn it, so I stole it from you, and tricked you into giving it to me." Sayu smirked, sticking her tongue out at her sister. "You should have read it all! You didn't know the rules. You were going to waste an opportunity. The rules written inside said you'd forget it if you gave up ownership. So did the Shinigami that came with the book. I happened to see him before you did, cuz he came to the house where the book was while you were at work, so when I realized that meant the book was real, I made him hide from you. He thought that was a _very_ fun trick to play on you."

"You... You were the one who killed Midori and Kimiko." She stared at her sister, everything clicked into place. _'I was right. Oh, no. I was right. It wasn't Light all along, was it? But Sayu...'_

Her sister grimaced, "They wrote that themselves. That was an accident. I thought it was a joke. That was why I wanted to take the book from you, since it was funny. I showed it to Midori, and she came up with something that would be impossible to happen, and wrote it in the book!" Sayu said, "We joked about it but decided it would never happen. Then I forgot about the book... Until the Shinigami appeared after that. By then it was too late, it couldn't be fixed, he told me. There was nothing I could do, so they died, and I realized it really was real."

Shikako asked, "What did you girls write in it exactly?"

"All she wrote was that someone would shoot her and Kimiko, sometime in the next month, then die when something hit him on the head. It was some guy that had been dating her mom before, and she hated him because he hit her, all the time! She was going to add me into it too, just for shits and giggles, but I took the book from her and told her to stop. She didn't write about when, or where, or what would happen specifically. It all just came together like that.

"When she died... I couldn't deal with it for a while. But then I thought- I thought I could make a difference! Light said that the world would be _better off without people like him,_ like that guy that shot them! He was a nasty person to begin with; Light was right. So, I decided to get rid of them. All of them." The venom in Sayu's voice was not like that of a child. "Dad was always away, working, to stop the bad guys, but I had the magic book that could stop them for good! I could actually do it! So I decided to make the world safe for once."

"By scaring into submission every person on the planet and killing the ones you disagree with? That's not any way towards world peace, and I'm getting really tired of this as an excuse. That's just terrorism."

"No it isn't. I reshaped the world. People aren't afraid to be themselves now, and criminals don't live for long. They just disappear!" Sayu's fists shook, "They don't go around killing cops and kids and, and... They don't do it anymore! I'm not the only one who thinks that!" Sayu stood and glared at her sister, "Everyone does!"

"You know what you're doing, right? It's not any better than all of those criminals combined, Sayu." She mentally sighed when her sister vehemently shook her head in the negative. "All things considered, I suppose you thought it was t _he best thing to do_ , right?"

Sayu looked absolutely happy when she heard her sister say that, "It is!" She even bounced on the balls of her feet, her hair bobbing up into her face. She wasn't hearing the sarcastic tone, or registering the disappointed expression on her face, if she believed that Shikako was being supportive of her choice to become an international terrorist.

Misa looked between them curiously, focusing on Shikako, "So, you had the note first. Is that why you're a bit blurry to me? I mean, I can see your name and all, but I can't quite make out all your features properly. It's like you're wearing a shadow over your face!" Misa said, blinking at Michiko while the red in her eyes grew in intensity.

 _'See your name? She can see my name? Those red eyes, they have a power to identify people by name on sight. But what does she man by wearing a shadow?'_

"It was your Death Note, but Sayu took it and you forgot, so it was no longer your Death Note... and now you remember it! So that means you'll remember Sayu's Shinigami? That doesn't explain why you're blurry to me, though." Misa pondered aloud.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand why I would be blurry to anyone. Amane, perhaps you need glasses?" she suggested dryly.

"Oh, no, she hasn't touched the Death Note we had here to begin with again, so she won't be able to see Ryuk. She's never seen him before, either!" Sayu shook her head at Misa.

 _'Ryuk, the other Shinigami...'_

A voice behind Shikako agreed, "That is how it works." Shikako spun in place, and saw a giant humanoid creature, with what appeared to be bones for skin. An odd coldness was radiating from the being, which Shikako had gotten so used to that she honestly hadn't noticed since walking into the cool room. She had a bandage wrapped over one eye, and lanky purple hair. The Shinigami, Rem.

Michiko politely bowed to the tall, white being, taking this in stride. Strange talking creatures? She was used to that, "Well, hello, you must be Rem."

Rem nodded in return, in place of a bow. Shikako noticed the creatures lanky arms were so long they reached down past her knees when standing up, and bobbed when she moved.

The creature grinned, "You must touch the other book once more to be able to see the other Shinigami. The Death Note you are holding now is Misa's. Since I had it before Misa, it allows her to see me. Anyone who touches it sees only me, though if they touched a Death Note previously, it revives their memories of it upon touching one again. That is what happened to you just now."

Shikako processed that, and wondered how it had managed to influence her so strongly. It must have been like an infinite tsukuyomi, to have that kind of strength to reverse or suppress memories. "So I can't see the other Shinigami yet?"

Rem confirmed, "The other Shinigami is invisible and a human cannot hear or see him until the owner of his Death Note lets that human touch the Death Note. From then on, they will be able to recognize that Shinigami. If they gain and then lose ownership of that Death Note, however, they lose the ability to interact with him or recognize him at all, and lose all memories associated with that Death Note."

"Mm, but there's a way to remember!" Sayu chimed in.

The Shinigami agreed, "The only time they would retain memories of the Death Notes upon losing ownership of one is if they possess a second Death Note. Even I, a Shinigami, do not know all the rules associated with the Death Notes. But those are basic ones."

 _'Well, that's helpful. They're quite happy to share. Sayu knows I mean her no harm, of course.'_ Shikako thought, _'Misa, on the other hand... So she's the second Kira. Well, mystery solved. Now what do I do about it?'_

Shikako gave her a long blink, then said, "So I forgot because Sayu took my note, and tricked me into giving up ownership of it; I lost my memories of it. Then Sayu kept it, showed it off and played with it, and got her friends killed... and Sayu... became Kira? Why, Sayu? I never would have expected such a thing from you. In hindsight, I should have noticed something was wrong, but that's just the problem. I already knew something was wrong, and attributed your behavior to that problem. Huh. If it was you all along, then that explains why the Investigation Team's files were accessed from our home- and the school schedule matching up to the killing times- L was right, it was a student. Because it was you!"

 _'But no... the killings started before her friends died. Agent Sora was there, after all. He gave them a ride home that day. He was in Japan trying to find Kira for L. If she decided to become Kira at that point then... something isn't adding up!'_ Shikako thought, _'So that means that Sayu is taking credit? For who? That doesn't get Light off the hook, then. It also doesn't get me any closer to figuring out just what happened here. Sayu, what are you thinking?'_

"Are you mad that I took your notebook?" Sayu asked, not really sounding too concerned. She actually sounded proud. Taunting, even.

"Livid. Positively livid. _You're grounded forever._ " Michiko deadpanned as she glared at Misa, already planning their way out of it. She knew it wouldn't be that simple. The shadows at her feet waved in agitation. She would have to fix this before L caught wind of it, or at least control what L hears. The Shinigami watched the floor, fascinated at the swirl of energy playing there, mouth parting slowly.

"You can't ground me!" Sayu screeched, not catching on. She threw a cracker on the table and it shattered in half as it hit, then flew through the air and vanished into Rem's leg. It passed right through the Shinigami, then reappeared on the other side as if nothing had impeded the motion as it struck the floor, which made Shikako stare at the wavering space just in front of the creature's leg. She had just seen space distort itself, as the cracker flew through the Shinigami. Now that, that was different. Did that mean she couldn't touch the creature?

Sayu frowned at her sister, hands balled into fists. Turning back to the girl, Shikako realized she was not used to confronting her sibling like this, the girl didn't usually act like such a misbehaving, immature teen. She was always so good-natured, if irritating on occasion. Or she just kept to herself most of the time. Her personality seemed to have shifted, in the time that she'd acquired the Death Note and begun using it, but Shikako had not seen the reason why. She had attributed it to a great personal loss, and a need to withdraw and recover. It just hadn't been apparent, or obvious, through all the clouds of doubt and suspicion around everyone else. And who would think to look for it?

"Wanna bet, munchkin? You've been _going around killing people_ and I've been taking the heat for it. Not to mention the suspicion on Light! Do you know how much of a mess I have to clean up now?" Misa giggled at Michiko's angered tone. Shikako clutched the notebook in her hands as she sized up the petite blonde before her. If only she could use her hammerspace right about now! "Oh, and don't think you're getting off easy, Amane. If what you said was true, then you tried to kill my dad and really did kill Yuko! You're in it even worse. You, I can shift the blame to, and give to L-"

"If you do anything at all to Misa, I will kill you myself." Rem threatened. The room went silent. All eyes were on the white creature. The Shinigami continued, "If any of your actions lead to the death of Misa, you will die next. You and all of your family. If I can't kill you myself, I will kill everyone you hold dear." Sayu gasped and fell back on the couch, staring at the creature, whose temperature had dropped even further, making the air feel frosty.

"But Rem, that means that you would..." Misa trailed off. She breathed through her nostrils slowly, lips closed tight, looking up at the Shinigami with tears in her red eyes.

"I know. I am aware of this. I choose to do so regardless. For you, Misa, I will." Rem eyed the other humans in the room, her wide mouth hanging open, exposing the sharpened fangs. Her purple hair that hung over her yellow slit eye, the other covered with a wrapped bandage, drooped down into Shikako's face as she stooped down to stare in to the shadowy girl's own eyes, looking deep through the veil of darkness surrounding her.

Rem towered over Michiko, gazing into the shadowy mass that was the girl's inquisitive face, giving her no indication that she couldn't really see her distinct features. Just the map of skin that was hidden by darkness, like a veil. It was enough to see the outline of her features, true, but enough to mask it as well. Like saying that _this soul is out of your reach. Not for you to consume. Not a product of this world, untouchable._ Rem didn't believe that to be true. She wanted a closer look.

"If I try, I can see you. If I look closely enough. It's like looking into another world," Rem stated with satisfaction. With that thought in mind, things began to become clear, once the Shinigami adjusted her sight she knew where to look, not just _how_ to look at this human. "Your true name does appear to me. That was not what I expected, strange little human. I do have the ability to kill you." She reached forward with her excessively long arms and brushed a lock of Shikako's own hair out of her face to get a better view. _'Well, that answers that question, on whether I can touch her or not.'_

"You're really a Shinigami, then." Shikako stated the obvious, reasoning something out loud for confirmation.

"Yes." Rem breathed a frozen, rancid breath in Michiko's face. It made her eyes water. She kept her mouth closed so she wouldn't taste it, but the smell was like death on the air. She didn't back away.

"And this notebook, the Death Note, is your tool? You use it as your weapon to kill with?" she queried, studying the yellow slit eyes, something that was familiar to her, like Ino's, but full of malice.

Rem nodded in response. "It is my only tool, and yes, I use it as this 'Kira' you say, does. For killing humans." Rem confirmed, looking back at Sayu. She stood up to her full height, almost touching the ceiling. She was closer to a human height when she was slumped or crouched, and at her full height the bone-shaped mass of her back aligned straight with a creak. It was odd that Shikako could hear her move now, whereas before she touched the book, there was no sound from this creature, no hint of its existence except... She still couldn't sense it, other than a strange coldness radiating through the room.

 _'This creature, this Shinigami, is the source of the chills I've been getting. All of this time.. which means there has been another one here...'_

"So you can only kill with the Death Note?" Shikako asked, flipping through the pages and reading all of the names listed there. So many names. How many of them were the Shinigami's doing and how many were Misa's? The handwriting all looked the same.

"We Shinigami are only allowed to use the Death Note to kill humans. We are punished severely, the ultimate punishment of our kind, if we do so otherwise. That is why we only kill with the Death Note. By doing so, we extend our own lives." Rem said. "I would _willingly_ kill you in any way to save Misa. Do not forget that." Rem harshly intoned as she backed away from Shikako slowly, looking like a snake made of bone as her head and arms bobbed with every backward step. It reminded Shikako of Orochimaru's white snake form, for a second.

"But you didn't tell her what you told me!" Misa exclaimed, clapping her hands. She elaborated on her own, though the Shinigami opened her mouth to shush her, "Shinigami can die by killing humans! They just have to... _fall in love_ first!" Misa said, gleefully giggling, despite Rem's annoyed expression. "Isn't that romantic? If a Shinigami dies for you, then you gain their life, like I did! A Shinigami saved my life, killing my attacker with his Death Note, which saved me when I was supposed to die. I got his life in exchange."

"Wow, and so Rem is willing to do that for you? That is romantic!" Sayu sighed appreciatively, seemingly forgetting the death threat on her own head. Michiko pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling a headache coming on. It might have been the Shinigami's breath that caused it, though. There was nothing really romantic about it, honestly. It was just someone wanting to protect someone else. All in a day's work, but then again, the human girl had become a precious person to the Shinigamis, hadn't she? She supposed some might view that as romantic.

"Misa, you shouldn't let this human keep your Death Note." Rem suggested, watching Shikako carefully. Shikako froze. She was not letting anyone else touch this note book, now that she knew exactly what it was. She didn't know if she would lose her memories by letting go of it, either. There was one way to test it though, but she would have to be alone to do it... it would also be a good precaution against losing it, or forgetting it entirely. Or she could just ask. They'd been pretty forthcoming with information so far.

Misa reached suddenly with her right hand to take the notebook from Shikako's hands, deciding her next action for her. Shikako vanished in a swirl of leaves. The two girls and the Shinigami were left staring at the fall of crinkled yellow autumn leaves as they landed gently to float on the tea in the teacup on the table. Rem's visible eye widened in surprise. This was not a normal human, at all.

"Oh My God, that's so cool!" Sayu yelled, falling to drape herself over the arm of the couch, thinking that her sister might have hidden behind it, she tried to look around the room, but saw nothing. Misa blinked stupidly, dropping her then empty tea cup on the couch as her left hand lost her grip on it.

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 **Author's Note:** Some comments I got were very thought provoking, because it brought up things I hadn't considered, so thanks again for that, I appreciate it!

This kind of fic has a lot to do with the revealing of the information to those characters that are searching for it, and how you go about that changes the reader's opinion on the story, so it's impossible to do everyone's expectations justice. (Honestly knew that wouldn't be possible, as I notice people were expecting things that I just... was _not_ writing. Because you _expect_ to expect them, as if nothing changed from canon. I couldn't respond to all the reviews or I'd have been giving things away, sorry!)

I've been leaving a lot of subtle read-between-the-lines type clues, practicing foreshadowing with this story. Underneath the underneath, ya know. There's always more to what you see. If I left it in there was good reason for it. (Now I want to know how many of you saw it coming. Was my foreshadowing too blatant or am I not adding enough of it...? Thank you!)

It might take a while to get another chapter posted, as I seem to be working on multiple stories now. I didn't intend to start new ones, but hey, life happens.

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